The buzz in Buffalo ahead of Friday's state Republican Convention is about how the party plans to handle the rise of Donald Trump. Zack Fink filed the following report.
Slowly but surely, Republican party leaders are embracing what some call the inevitability of Donald Trump becoming the party's nominee for president.
On Thursday, Erie County Republican Chairman Nick Langworthy became the 14th county chair to endorse Trump.
"I endorse Donald Trump for president of the United States. It's something I have been leaning to for some time," Langworthy said. "Honestly, (I) was going to withhold, just find the right time to make the endorsement. But I'll be honest, Mitt Romney's comments today somewhat pushed that forward out of me."
Officially, the state party is staying neutral. Chairman Ed Cox has declined to endorse any candidate in the GOP field. But Carl Paladino, the Republican gubernatorial nominee in 2010 who ran against Andrew Cuomo, says the party is being hypocritical.
"Our state leadership took a grand total of two minutes and 13 seconds after Romney announced he was running for president, they took two minutes 13 seconds to get on the bus. Now, it's,we are staying neutral, we are waiting to see," Paladino said.
Paladino also took issue with Romney's comments about Trump.
"I mean, they are so far off the reservation. They have come to believe that the Republican Party is theirs. And it's not. It belongs to the regular Republicans, the rank-and-file. And they have a right to choose their own leadership," Paladino said.
Even those Republicans who have endorsed other candidates, though, are careful not to trash Trump.
"Well, you see that coming from the establishment, you heard Mitt Romney today, and there certainly are concerns that have been raised over some of the things that have been said. But we have a process that has to continue to play out," said Assemblyman Raymond Walter of Buffalo.
For those who didn't completely get on the Trump train, one GOP insider described what's going on here as like being in the final stage of grief, which is acceptance.