County Executive Elections Collins ran for Erie County Executive in 2007 on a platform of smaller county government, lower taxes and Six Sigma. His campaign slogan was "Elect a Chief Executive, not a Chief Politician." Collins defeated Democrat James P. Keane, the deputy county executive of the Dennis Gorski administration, with 63% of the vote; his win was considered an upset. On November 8, 2011, Collins lost his bid for re-election in a race that he was predicted to win. He was defeated by Democratic candidate Mark Poloncarz, the Erie County Comptroller. In a county with 140,000 more Democrats than Republicans, Collins won 39 of the 44 municipalities. Poloncarz won the five remaining municipalities, including the City of Buffalo, by a margin of 81% to 19%. Tenure When Collins became Erie County Executive, he inherited from his Republican predecessor, Joel Giambra, a nearly bankrupt county that had state-imposed fiscal control with a budget of $1.2 billion. Collins spoke for three minutes at the 2008 Republican National Convention on September 3, 2008. By June 2009, the state-imposed strict oversight of the Erie County budget ended. Collins recruited a Six Sigma Master Black Belt from the University at Buffalo who had previously worked as an executive at Delphi to implement Lean Six Sigma across all county departments under the direction of the county executive to improve efficiency and reduce costs. The position's $115,000 salary plus associated costs was funded by a grant of taxpayer money from the Erie County Control Board. Collins sued the county so that he could unilaterally increase the county attorney's salary. The State Supreme Court Judge presiding over the case ruled in favor of Collins and awarded the higher salary to the incoming County Attorney. Collins was sued by the United States Department of Justice for repeated civil rights violations of prisoners held in county facilities, including juveniles and prisoners with developmental disabilities. The Department of Justice and Erie County co-signed a stipulated settlement of dismissal in August 2011. He was also sued by the County Legislature for refusing to issue payments to Erie Community College that had been included in the county's budget. As County Executive, Collins created the Brighter Future Fund, donating his county salary to local non-profit organizations for the first 18 months of his tenure. In February 2008, Erie County experienced a potential Hepatitis A emergency when an infected employee handled produce at a