Voters in New York’s 23rd Congressional District, which includes the West Valley Demonstration Project nuclear cleanup site, were to go to the polls Tuesday to decide who they want to fill the final months in the unexpired term of former Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.).
Democratic Party candidate Max Della Pia goes up against Republican Joe Sempolinski in a special general election to succeed Reed.
Reed resigned from his office in May to take a job with a lobbying firm. In March 2021 Reed announced he would not seek re-election to the congressional seat he had held since January 2013, after public allegations the lawmaker made unwanted sexual advances toward a female insurance lobbyist in 2017.
Sempolinski, who worked as a staffer for Reed, is not part of a separate Aug. 23 Republican primary to pick a GOP nominee to compete in November’s general election that will decide the party’s candidate for a full two-year term starting in January, according to an Aug. 18 article in the Buffalo News.
According to his campaign website, Della Pia is an Air Force veteran, lawyer and was a congressional staffer for now-retired Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich).
Nicholas Langworthy, a former congressional staffer and Erie County Republican Party chair, is running against Carl Paladino, a former Buffalo school board member and unsuccessful GOP candidate for governor. Both GOP primary candidates have been described in media accounts as supporters of former President Donald Trump.
The Department of Energy is responsible for cleaning up the West Valley Demonstration Project, and provides 90% of the remediation funding. The rest is provided by New York state, which owns the site.
