Before Tuesday: Why Nate McMurray Should Win the 145th Assembly

Frank Parlato · November 2, 2026

The 145th District lies on the American side of the Niagara River, from Grand Island past the Falls to Lake Ontario. It contains the tourist-jammed state park and the power plant.

On Tuesday, the people who live there will choose who goes to Albany to ask for their share. There are two names.

Becky Wydysh, a Republican, ran the Niagara County Legislature.

Nate McMurray, a Democrat, ran Grand Island.

HE CAN GET ALBANY TO ANSWER

Democrats hold 103 of 150 Assembly seats. A Republican in the minority cannot pass a budget or block a veto override, and gets a sliver of the money for local projects. When those grants were last counted, Democrats got more than seven times as much.

In the Assembly, the Speaker and the majority decide which bills get a vote. Democrats chair every committee, so a Republican's bill usually dies before anyone votes on it.

The majority also decides which towns get state grants. A Republican member can ask, but a Democrat says yes or no.

McMurray would sit with the majority. In the room. Not out in the hall.

In July, families in the district got notices. The ground near their houses was radioactive. McMurray met with them. Then he wrote to Albany and told the state to take charge. He did not hold any office.

"We need a quarterback," he wrote.

Within days, the state answered. It said its environmental and health agencies would work with the federal EPA, and that families had been offered relocation while testing went on.

HE HAS DONE IT BEFORE

Grand Island leaned Republican. McMurray was a Democrat. He ran it anyway. He wanted the toll barriers off the bridges. They came down. He helped bring the state's Welcome Center to the island.

In 2018, he ran for Congress against Republican Chris Collins in New York's most Republican district. Few gave him a chance. He lost by 1,087 votes. Collins later pleaded guilty to insider trading charges and went to prison until President Trump pardoned him in 2020.

HE KNOWS WHERE HE CAME FROM

McMurray grew up in a little house beside the Erie Canal in North Tonawanda, one of seven children, and when he was 4, his father, who had a drywall business, died of cancer, and his mother raised all seven of them with nothing much except the will to do it.

He worked. He went to the University at Buffalo. Then law school. Then a Fulbright. Then Samsung, as senior counsel. Then he came home. His story is here.

"I grew up poor, but I had opportunities," he wrote this fall. "I'm afraid those same doors are closing for the next generation."

HE HAS A PLAN FOR NIAGARA

McMurray has said what he wants from Albany:

more casino money for Niagara Falls
more local benefit from Niagara power, and lower utility bills
the Power Authority's headquarters moved to Niagara Falls
a street-by-street plan to rebuild the city
money to clean up contaminated land, and help for families who need to move
funding for Artpark
protection for farms, trails and open space on Grand Island

On his first day, he says he will bring families affected by pollution with him to Albany.

HER RECORD

Wydysh served about 10 years in the Niagara County Legislature, including six years as chair. In that time:

The land bank had land it knew was radioactive. It tried to sell it.
People were dying of overdoses. The county had $3.7 million in opioid money. It did not spend it.
The Legislature gave itself a raise. The meeting took three minutes.

In Albany, she would be one of 47 Republicans. A seat. A title. Not much else.

A WORD TO REPUBLICANS

The Democrats will run the Assembly. That is decided. What isn't decided is where your Assemblymember sits. Your member can sit with them when they write the budget. Or your member can sit across the room.

McMurray has made Republicans an offer: "Give me two years. Judge what I accomplish. If you're unhappy, put up somebody you believe in, and we'll have that contest."

WHAT I THINK

For as long as anybody can remember, Niagara has been sending its money down to Albany, the park money and the power money — billions in total — and waiting for something to come back, and mostly it didn't.

To answer that by electing another member of the Republican minority would be a kind of civic masochism.

McMurray has the record, the plan, and the seat at the table to try. The case is not close.

Polls are open Tuesday. If you're not sure where you vote, the Niagara County Board of Elections can tell you.

DISCLOSURE

Nate McMurray's campaign has paid me for advertising in the Niagara Falls Reporter and for consulting services. He has disclosed those payments in his campaign filings. People who oppose him have bought far more advertising.