By Marie Horrigan, CQ Staff

Republicans in Western New York were looking Tuesday for another candidate to succeed GOP Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds after a potential consensus choice took a pass on the race.

State Sen. George D. Maziarz announced Monday that he would not run for the 26th Congressional District citing his interest in continuing his work in the state Senate.

“It is in the New York Senate where I feel I can do the most good for my district and this region,” he said in a statement. He also cited his role as chairman of the state Senate Energy Committee and the possibility of shaping energy policy for the state.

As a result of Reynolds’ retirement and Maziarz’s decision, CQ Politics is changing the race rating for the district from Republican Favored to the more competitive Leans Republican.

Maziarz’s decision not to run is a blow to the Republican Party, whose leaders are still searching for a consensus candidate and hoping to avoid a wide open primary. Maziarz was widely named as the top candidate for Reynolds’ seat after the congressman’s surprise retirement announcement Thursday.

“We had people who indicated initially ... that if Sen. Maziarz was a candidate that almost all of them would have deferred to him but now we’re going to have to go back for round two and try to figure out who would be the strongest candidate and try to unify behind that individual,” said Henry Wojtaszek, chairman of the Niagara County Republican Party.

“It’s certainly a much different process,” without Maziarz in the race, said Nick Langworthy, executive director of the Erie County Republican Party. “Sen. Maziarz had a level of respect and a lot of people anticipated he was a guy that was interested in moving up to Congress, and he really had broad support within the seven counties.”

In addition to Erie and Niagara counties, the 26th Congressional District covers all or part of Genesee, Livingston, Monroe, Orleans and Wyoming counties.

Republicans maintain they will have a strong candidate. Wojtaszek said he has received calls from six people interested in the race and has three meetings scheduled today with potential candidates. He said he also is talking with the chairmen of the six other county committees in the district and he hoped to coalesce support behind one candidate by early next week.

Five people have been named as potential candidates: state Reps. Stephen Hawley and Jim Hayes; Iraq war veteran David Bellavia; attorney Michael B. Powers and businessman Anthony Baynes.

“We have to take the time to examine who has an interest at this point, who would stack up well against the many Democrats in the race,” Langworthy said.

New York’s late primary — Sept. 9 — means any major intra-party jockeying for the primary will cut into general election funds for the eventual nominee.

Democrats also are set for a primary race. Already announced is lawyer Alice J. Kryzan and Iraq war veteran Jon Powers. Jack Davis, a millionaire industrialist who unsuccessfully challenged Reynolds in 2004 and 2006, said he is “80 percent there” in terms of getting into the race, but that he continued to examine the field. Davis said he expected to get the results from polling on Wednesday but did not have a time-line for entering the race.

A fourth Democrat also is said to be considering a run: Erie Couty Clerk Kathy Hochul.

Langworthy and Wojtaszek said they hoped to avoid a Republican primary. “In our area, Western New York, we just tend to be better at this than the Democrats on uniting behind one candidate and avoiding these primaries altogether,” Langworthy said.