Choolokian Will Run for Mayor Szwedo to Challenge Accardo

Two Republicans and two Democrats.

With the announcement of two candidates today- there will be at least four men vying for the position of mayor of Niagara Falls.

Councilman Glenn A. Choolokian, a Democrat, announced today he will run in the Democratic primary against incumbent Mayor Paul A. Dyster.

Dyster is seeking his third term.

Choolokian is currently serving the last year of his four-year term as councilman and is a full time union worker for the Niagara Falls Water Board. He first started working for the city in 1987.

On the Republican side, businessman James Szwedo announced today he will run in the Republican primary against John G. Accardo.

Accardo announced his candidacy for mayor two weeks ago.

Szwedo is president of the Niagara Street Area Business & Professional Association, owns multiple properties in the city and operates a successful commercial cleaning business.

Accardo operates the successful and long established Accardo Insurance Agency on Pine Ave.

The primary elections will be held on September 9.

Voters must be registered with the party to cast a vote in the primary.

Accardo and Dyster are both strongly supported by their respective party leaders.

Choolokian and Szwedo are mounting grass roots campaigns.

With the exception of Szwedo, all candidates have been in several elections.

During the 2011 primary, Dyster defeated Accardo securing nearly double the votes but, less than 1200 votes separated them in the low turnout primary.

The well organized support he received from the party and voter apathy was seen as the difference.

Accardo has since changed parties.

At the time of his primary loss, Accardo said in concession, "I'm a good Democrat. He beat me fair and square on the Democratic line and that's the end of it. The voters spoke."

Accardo chose not to campaign on the Conservative Party line and threw his support to Dyster who narrowly won the general election against then-Republican Johnny Destino, by only 700 votes.

Destino has since switched to the Democratic party.

Dyster's reelection made him the first incumbent mayor to be reelected since Michael O'Laughlin, who retired in 1991.

With Choolokian in the race and a proven vote getter it will be a contest between the party members -- Dyster's circle - versus Choolokian's following- which consist mostly of working people who are not happy with what Choolokian calls the "tax and spend" administration of Mayor Dyster.

With one third the registered voters who are Republican in the city, the Republican primary may be won with as little as 1000 votes and both Accardo and Szwedo will have to compete to attract a small number of primary voters, many of whom know one or both of the men.