Photo of mayoral candidate dressed as Hitler resurfaces
Mar. 6—NORTH TONAWANDA — A photo depicting Austin Tylec, North Tonawanda's Democratic candidate for mayor and an alderman-at-large, as Adolf Hitler has been circulating through social media. However, this isn't the first time this particular photo has been trouble for Tylec.
Tylec claims the photo is fake, and has been pushed by Jacob Quinn and was submitted to a Facebook group called North Tonawanda Political Talk Uncensored in July 2019, with several people going to bat for Tylec.
"He's been trying to push this idea that I'm an anti-semite for years now," Tylec said. "He's tried to be vocal online about it and got blocked from all these pages. ... It's just some ridiculous theory he's come up with. I'm surprised you haven't seen him spitting hate online or anything like that. He's become kind of obsessive in a way."
Quinn said he originally saw the photo on an Instagram page of a former boyfriend of Tylec's. Quinn said he felt there is no reason for anyone to ever dress as Hitler, adding someone who would do this, shouldn't hold the highest elected office in North Tonawanda. With everything happening with the #MeToo movement and Gov. Andrew Cuomo, he said he thought this would be the best time to post about it on social media to see if other people felt as disgusted as he did.
Robert Pecoraro, the Republican candidate for Mayor of North Tonawanda, had no response to the photo, saying he is running his platform about the issues important to him, not who else is involved. He did say he saw the photo on Facebook, adding he'd never seen it before now.
"I'm not running against anyone, I'm running for North Tonawanda and who I am as a mayoral candidate," Pecoraro said.
