Published: March 19, 2008 04:12 am      

POLITICS: Davis testing waters while Powers' bid for Congress picks up steam

As the Jon Powers campaign picks up a feel of inevitability, Jack Davis sounds like he’s spoiling for a primary fight in the U.S. House 26th district race.

The Powers campaign on Tuesday announced another series of endorsements by Democratic Party units and labor unions: the Town of Lancaster Democratic committee, International Union of Painters & Allied Trades and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 86. His published list of backers, including influential groups and esteemed individuals, now numbers 20.

Davis, who twice challenged incumbent Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds, R-Clarence, and lost the ’06 contest by a close margin, dismisses the endorsements as superficial fuss.

The 75-year-old Akron industrialist, who as a candidate for federal office managed to make “free trade” a hot-button phrase in battered Western New York, still isn’t officially running in the ’08 race.

He has made the rounds among county Democratic committees in the 26th district, though, and this week his hired pollsters are testing the waters of public opinion for him.

If the polling results are favorable, Davis said Tuesday, he will enter the race — and bring $3 million of his own money to the contest.

“I am that committed to beating Reynolds,” he said.

Powers, Davis and Buffalo attorney Alice Kryzan all are awaiting word from the Erie and Monroe county party committees as to who their picks are in the coming race.

The other county committees, Genesee, Livingston, Orleans, Wyoming and Niagara, already picked Powers, as have a range of service and skilled tradesman unions, from SEIU and United Food and Commercial Workers to Communications Workers of America and International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers.

Davis is unimpressed by the list.

“Some people like a pretty face. (Powers) tells you what you want to hear; he’s not the grouchy old man telling you like it is,” he said. “I’ve been around a long time and I know how trade works.”

If Davis runs a third campaign for Congress, his centerpiece still would be free trade’s negative effects on manufacturing, agriculture and the national economy, generally. He said he’d also campaign for quick withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and institution of vastly tighter security at the U.S. southern border.

If anything’s holding him back from declaring his candidacy, he said, it’s the uncertainty of public support. The Washington, D.C.-based Cooper and Seacrest polling firm is interviewing 500 people this week, a cross-section of Democratic and other-party registered voters, to tell him whether his issues are their issues.

“Do I have a chance to win this time? I think I do,” Davis said, “but before I spend $3 million ... .”

Davis expects to decide within the next week or two whether to run again, he said.

Doing so would spark a primary fight in a party whose principals say the battle ahead should be with Reynolds, not with each other.

The Niagara County Democratic Committee endorsed Powers, a 30-year-old Army veteran of the Iraq War, after an extended look at the potential candidates “and a lot of soul searching,” chairman Dan Rivera said.

“We have a lot of history with Jack Davis, but we had to look at who would be the strongest candidate to fight Reynolds. (Powers) offers a fresh approach; he takes Jack’s message and grows the base of support, where it’s a lot of the same thing with Jack,” Rivera said. “The question is what resonates with voters, and it’s not just about jobs and the economy, it’s the world stage as well. Powers brings that added dimension ... .”

Even as Davis dismisses Powers as “a pretty face,” Powers seems to take pains not to publicly disrespect Davis.

He says he genuinely admires Davis’ central accomplishment in two hard-fought campaigns but also suggests he’s more in tune with workaday people affected by U.S. trade policies.

“People don’t want (an end to free trade), they want a fair and balanced playing field. They want to be able to compete under (comparable) labor and environmental standards. ... They want trade to create opportunities, not just ‘save jobs,’” Powers said.

Powers has been campaigning for the Democratic nod since last fall and says his platform is shaped by voter feedback in door-to-door visiting, meet-and-greet “house parties” and steady public appearances across the district.

Davis, by contrast, eschewed public appearances in the 2006 district race and rejects the flesh-pressing aspect of campaigning.

Contact reporter Joyce Miles at 439-9222, ext. 6245.