From the Morning Memo:
Erie County Conservative Party Chairman Ralph Lorigo has worked with several Republican leaders over his 25-year tenure. He says Nick Langworthy, who has been the county GOP boss for almost a decade, compares favorably to all of them.
“I’ve had a good working relationship with a number of chairman,” Lorigo said. “Nick is a very aggressive, hardworking chairman who really knows how to get people involved and he knows how to get people elected.”
Langworthy appears to have successfully challenged state Chair Ed Cox, and will become the new head of the state party later this year, as Cox take a job with the Trump campaign. He’ll become the first chair from the Buffalo area in decades, and the youngest person ever to hold the post.
“Nick knows the people in Western New York,” Lorigo said. “He knows the candidates in Western New York. He will not forget Western New York. In fact, he told me he will continue to live here in Western New York. His home is here, his wife and child are here.”
“So Western New York will be a big part of what happens across the state. This gives Western New Yorkers…people from upstate and the Western part of the state, the ability to move into statewide offices, the ability to know the chairman and have a close relationship with him, and to be able to bring our values throughout the state.”
As a young county chair, Langworthy made a name for himself in part by helping then-relatively unknown Buffalo businessman Carl Paladino get the GOP nomination for governor in 2010. Paladino was not the party’s choice, but he beat out former Long Island Rep. Rick Lazio in the September primary.
Paladino, a long-time Cox critic, praised Langworthy for challenging the establishment again.
“I think it took a lot of courage to go around the state and lobby each county chair for support,” he said. “It’s time we had a someone who represented the whole party. This is the party of the working man. Ed Cox took us in the wrong direction. He wanted to hang out with high highfalutin types and stuffed shirts. He was so far out of touch it was high time for a change.”
Cox and Langworthy are planning to meet in Albany today, and will hold a joint press conference after their discussion.