BUFFALO, N.Y. — Chrissy Casilio made it official Monday, announcing her candidacy for Erie County Executive.
The 36-year-old Clarence resident and daughter of Clarence Town Supervisor Patrick Casilio will challenge incumbent Mark Poloncarz for the role.
"I believe we will win because you will not find a greater contrast to Mark Poloncarz than me,” Casilio said.
The Erie County Republican Party endorsed Casilio a week after the democrats endorsed Poloncarz for an unprecedented fourth term.
The challenger wasted no time launching jabs at her opponent after announcing her candidacy.
“I’m not here today because I desire to amass power and serve a select few,” she said. “I'm not here to further a political career built on intimidation. I'm not a professional politician running for a fourth term because I have nowhere else to go.”
In an exclusive interview with 2 On Your Side, Casilio specifically pointed to a lack of transparency as a key issue with the current county administration, especially in regard to the December blizzard.
“He didn't own the mistakes that he made,” Casilio said of Poloncarz. “He did not show unity with the federal government, and instead of the headlines being about how we persevered, the headlines were that our county executives and our government were fighting and mismanaging and him not taking any accountability.”
But that same lack of transparency is what critics are now using to call Casilio's integrity into question.
Casilio recently made her Twitter account private after engaging in a thread that included conspiracy theories that Damar Hamlin had died.
“I think that the people had a right to question why there was such little access or why we didn't get to see in the security and all of those different things,” said Casilio, who runs a marketing firm. “Like I said, just from the PR perspective, I would have done it differently.”
Doing things differently, despite her lack of political experience, is something Casilio feels will help her connect with voters.
"Success, for me, would be for people to feel like they trust the government again. That would be a success,” she said.
Democratic challenger Nate McMurray also announced Monday his plans to drop out of the race leaving Poloncarz tonight as the lone Democratic candidate.