One candidate says Mexican immigrants could cause a second civil war in the US, another was cited for allegedly swearing at a cop, and the third began her legal career by representing the company responsible for Love Canal.

It's no wonder the mud's flying.

This is the lineup for the Democratic primary in New York's 26th Congressional District. Respectively, the candidates are Jack Davis, Jon Powers, and Alice Kryzan.

Let's start with Davis. He paid $5,000 each to the wives of the Erie and Monroe County Independence Party chairs for "consulting." That led the Monroe County party to force out its chair, Rafael Colon. Party officials have asked the County District Attorney's Office to investigate the dealings between Davis and Blanca Colon.

Davis and Powers are in a sort of political food fight. It's gotten so bad that the Buffalo News told them in an editorial to behave.

Davis publicized Powers's 2004 citation for disorderly conduct, issued after Powers allegedly swore at a police officer in Ohio. Powers pleaded no contest to a lesser charge and paid less than $100 in fines. Davis - along with Republicans - has also hammered his opponent over Powers's War Kids Relief charity, claiming it was mismanaged. But records show that the only real problem with the charity was that it didn't meet the goals that Powers set for it.

The Powers campaign, for its part, has not hesitated to point out Davis's troubles. In addition to the alleged payoffs, one of Davis's campaign workers is being investigated by the Niagara County District Attorney's Office for alleged petition fraud.

Kryzan has managed to stay out of the line of fire. She's paying a price, though - the media is essentially ignoring her campaign.

The 26th District seat was held by Republican Tom Reynolds for five terms, but he announced earlier this year that he wouldn't seek re-election. That leaves the seat wide open. The winner of the Democratic primary will face Republican businessman Christopher Lee.

The negative tone of the primary isn't going to help in the general election, where Democrats need to win over Republican and unaffiliated voters. There are more than 440,000 registered voters in the district: 32 percent are Democrats and Republicans make up 40 percent. Independents - "blanks" as they are colloquially known - make up 21 percent.

The 26th District sprawls across Western New York, though the Buffalo-Niagara region tends to serve as its anchor. The district includes the northern suburbs of Buffalo, the western-most suburbs of Rochester, and some of Niagara County. Sandwiched in-between are the rural areas of Livingston, Wyoming, Genesee, and Orleans (all but the towns bordering the lake) Counties.

There are factories and office parks, state colleges, a good stretch of the Erie Canal, the state's first ethanol plant, wind farms, the birthplace of Jell-O, Letchworth state park, and plenty of farms and agribusinesses. But the declining economy has cost the district thousands of jobs, many of them in manufacturing.

The district's residents have a lot on their minds: the economy, energy costs, education, keeping farming viable, and protecting the land around them. They need a candidate who will fight for them, not just one who is spoiling for a fight.

JACK DAVIS

Things we've learned about Jack Davis: he appears to leverage his money to get endorsements, he bought all-too-eager motorists a bunch of gas, and if the US ever builds a border fence, it had better have a Made-in-the-USA label stamped right on it.

Let's put it right out front: Davis is an oddball who engages in old-style hustle-and-handshake campaigning. But the man knows how to get attention.

A dubious publicity stunt marked Davis's entrance into this year's primary fray. For one afternoon, Davis subsidized gas purchases at a Greece gas station, allowing drivers - read: voters - a chance to fill their tanks for $1.50 a gallon, the price of gas when President George Bush took office. Critics, including Davis's primary opponents, characterized the gas stunt as vote-buying.

Davis used the opportunity to highlight his energy plan - basically the "all of the above" approach favored by Republicans. He wants expanded domestic oil and natural gas drilling, as well as wider use of nuclear power and renewable energy.

He is no stranger to 26th District voters; this is his third campaign for the seat. He first ran in 2004 under a third party, and then ran as a Democrat in 2006. He proved popular with voters the last time around, earning 48 percent of the vote to Republican opponent Tom Reynolds's 52 percent.

Davis has an independent streak, and that's been part of his appeal to 26th District voters. And it's made him a thorn in the side of party leaders.

He's a former Republican who left the party after a disagreement over Bush administration free trade policies, says the New York Times. His dislike of free-trade agreements like NAFTA has been a signature issue. And that has won him support in the district, which has been particularly hard hit by manufacturing job losses.

Davis says he wants US troops out of Iraq immediately and for American and Iraqi politicians to begin to "negotiate the peace." Davis wants tougher immigration law enforcement, for both individuals and employers. And, from the land of the bizarre, he says he wants any border fence that's built to be American-made. And, oh yeah, he says Mexican immigration to the US could lead to a second civil war.

Late last week, Davis announced that he had formed his own political party, Save the Jobs and Farms, to ensure a place on the November general election ballot.

ALICE KRYZAN

Alice Kryzan has an attention-getting résumé, yet no one knows her name. Why? Because while Kryzan has a pedigree as an environmental lawyer and is the former chair of Planned Parenthood of Buffalo and Erie County, she's in a race with two headline-grabbers: a popular Iraq vet and a rich eccentric.

Kryzan's plans have a heavy environmental bent - last week she was endorsed by the New York League of Conservation Voters.

She opposes expanded off-shore oil drilling and is against opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge todrilling. A better plan, and one that would really benefit the 26th District, she says, would be increased emphasis on and investment in renewable energy.

The 26th District is "uniquely poised" to take advantage of the field's growth, she says. If federal dollars are directed to local universities, the schools can do research and development work, she says. Western New York industries could manufacture the technologies. And wind farms could be built in its rural areas - places in which cellulosic material for ethanol could also be grown.

Economic growth through renewable energy development "is something we can have here in the 26th District if only we send somebody to Congress with the will to get it done," Kryzan says.

A troubling aspect of Kryzan's background is that, early in her career, she represented Occidental Chemical in litigation brought by Love Canal residents. She ultimately helped settle the lawsuit. But she has also represented towns trying to get contaminated sites cleaned up, and currently she's volunteering with a coalition that's trying to stop a proposed coal power plant in Jamestown.

Kryzan backs "A Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq," a policy developed for Democratic congressional challengers by national security experts, retired generals, and congressional candidate Darcy Burner. In place of military efforts, the US government should focus on intensive diplomatic and economic development efforts in Iraq, Kryzan says.

"I think we have spent far too much treasure in terms of our brave men and women who have given their lives and those who have been so severely wounded, and have spent far too much money on a war that never should have been started," she says.

Kryzan also says that the US should help with the resettlement of Iraqi refugees.

In terms of health care, she would like the US government offer a health-care plan that's competitive with the private sector, and then give people an opportunity to choose.

JON POWERS

How does a political nobody end up the "establishment" candidate? When he's running against a rich oddball and another virtual unknown. And Jon Powers is an Iraq war veteran, so he's got a compelling back-story.

Powers has endorsements from every county Democratic committee in the 26th District, as well as backing from a growing list of labor unions - the most recent being UAW and NYSUT.

Like Davis, he is a former Republican. He told the Niagara Gazette last year that he switched his enrollment when he returned from Iraq because he was unhappy with how the GOP was running the country.

No Child Left Behind is "completely underfunded," Powers says. The federal government needs to move away from education policies that use standardized testing as a primary measurement of students' academic success, he says.

Powers wants a "strategic redeployment" from Iraq. The troops have done their job, he says - Washington just needs to follow through with a political and economic effort. The Iraqis should be given "ownership in their country again," he says.

Powers says that he expects that some of the troops pulled out of Iraq would be sent to Afghanistan "to finish the fight that's going on there right now."

The energy crisis is "the Apollo of our generation," he says. He advocates tapping into the government's Strategic Petroleum Reserve to lower prices in the short term, as well as reining in the oil speculators that are driving up fuel costs. He makes no mention of drilling. In the long term, Powers says, there needs to be more investment in technologies like biofuels, solar power, and wind power.

Renewable energy technologies can spur economic development in Western New York; the federal government just needs to invest in them, he says.

On health care, Powers wants to drive down costs by creating a marketplace that allows individuals and small businesses to negotiate with health insurers like larger companies can. He also wants Congress to back an expanded version of the State Children's Health Insurance Program.