New York's Next Lieutenant Governor

Greg Edwards has been Chautauqua County Executive since January 2006. He was reelected to a second term in 2009. Chautauqua County is a rural county in the southwest corner of the State (Bordering Pennsylvania and Lake Erie). It has a population of 135,000, an annual budget of $235 million, and 1,104 county employees. Greg is universally regarded as a very effective County Executive. He has reduced property taxes every year he has been in office. He has eliminated and consolidated agencies. He has increased the bond rating (to A+) and spearheaded creative economic development initiatives that have produced significant revenue for the county. Greg comes from a family of dairy farmers, and is a proponent of agribusiness issues. He spent the majority of his adult life as a private practice attorney – spending part of that time as a public defender.

Greg Edwards, 49, was born in Panama, New York in September 1960. Greg was 14 at the time when his parents took over his grandfather’s dairy farm. Greg’s mother was the physical education teacher at Panama High School.

Greg spent his high school years rising early to do chores and help milk the 60 head of cattle on the farm. He would then go to school, participate in sports, come home for evening chores and then homework. He graduated Panama High School in 1978 and then went to Allegany College in Pennsylvania. He spent four years on the football team as a backup linebacker, tackle, and special teams player. He graduated in 1982 with his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science.

Upon graduation from college, Greg took a job on the outskirts of Pittsburgh as a salesman for a steel plant. A year and a half later, he returned home to the family farm in Panama, New York to work full time on the farm, while at the same time obtaining a license to broker property casualty insurance and applying to law school.

in 1986 he graduated Toledo Law School and was admitted to the New York State bar in 1987. Right out of law school he went to work as an Associate for a small law firm – Erickson, Webb, Scolton – in Jamestown, New York. In 1991, he became a partner at the law firm Lodestro, Cass, Vanstrom and Edwards.

In 2004, the local Republican Party asked Greg to run for County Executive against a two-term incumbent. Greg won election to his first term in 2005.

He has worked hard to consolidate and reduce government agencies and eliminated two departments. He has reduced the property tax rate every year he has been in office. Greg has been married to Carrie Wilson since 1990. They have three children and live in Jamestown, NY.