Categories for PoliticalPost

Oct 5

2021

Big donors to Brown and Walton

Published by

Byron Brown’s usual cast of campaign donors are digging deep to support his write-in campaign for mayor, showering the four-term incumbent with $851,000 since he lost the Democratic primary on June 22 to India Walton. Brown’s donors include developers and other companies who do business with the city and patronage employees who depend on the mayor for a paycheck. A number of noteworthy Republicans have also donated significant sums. In many cases, support for Brown is a family affair.  For example, four Nanulas — Anthony, Paul, Philip, and Steven — chipped in $25,000 between them. Anthony Nanula is a former[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Jul 28

2021

Mychajliw’s faulty campaign filing

Published by

On Monday, Erie County’s lame-duck comptroller, Stefan Mychajliw, finally submitted a July campaign finance disclosure filing to the New York State Board of Elections. There are some problems, as there often are with Mychajliw’s campaign finances. First, this filing — one of two required annually of all candidates for elected office — arrived 11 days late. Second, the filing was for the campaign committee he used to run for comptroller, when in fact he is running for supervisor of the Town of Hamburg. That’s against the law: You can’t collect money for one office and use the money to run[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Jun 25

2021

Rallying to save their patronage jobs

Published by

Wondering whether Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown is giving serious consideration to mounting a write-in campaign to keep his job in November? The answer might have been in plain sight Thursday night at Sahlen Field, where Brown threw out the first pitch before the Toronto Blue Jays went on to drop the Baltimore Orioles, 9-0. Outside the park, a crowd of Byron Brown supporters gathered in front of the main entrance to make a pitch of their own. They wore T-shirts bearing Brown’s name and carried signs reading “Keep Byron Brown.” This was no extemporaneous, grassroots expression of support for the[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Jun 23

2021

Walton’s campaign outworked Brown

Published by

The night before the Buffalo mayoral primary, India Walton’s campaign made nearly 19,000 calls to Democratic voters in the city, reminding them to vote and making the case for Walton over four-term incumbent Byron Brown. The campaign sent almost 100,000 text messages, too, while more than 150 Walton supporters stationed themselves at polling sites across the city on election day. The campaign fielded enough people, a campaign spokesperson said, to make a last-minute pitch to half the people who showed up to vote Tuesday as they walked in, and to take their temperature on the race as they left their[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Jun 20

2021

Wealthy last-minute donors to Brown campaign

Published by

Updated: 1:42 p.m. Maybe the race for mayor of Buffalo is tighter than most believed it would be.  Or perhaps the last-minute flurry of campaign activity by Mayor Byron Brown — who has been running a stealth campaign for the past five months — was forthcoming regardless of whatever internal polls told the four-term incumbent. Whichever the case, the Brown campaign has come alive in the last week. And big donors have poured money into the re-election effort, helping to underwrite a blitz of TV advertising and get-out-the-vote efforts as the countdown to election day approaches zero. Tuesday’s Democratic primary[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Jun 15

2021

Judged unfit for re-election

Published by

The Bar Association of Erie County rated Diane Wray a poor choice for a Buffalo City Court judgeship when she first ran in 2011. Its members rated her “not recommended,” the lowest score they can give. She won anyway.  A decade later, local attorneys haven’t changed their opinion.  Two weeks ago, the Bar Association’s members rated Wray “not recommended” for reelection. It’s the only time in the past 10 years the Bar has advised voters not to return an incumbent judge to the bench. The Bar Association does not comment on its judicial ratings, which are made by a bipartisan[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Jun 12

2021

Brown’s non-campaign campaign for mayor

Published by

Mayor Byron Brown seems determined to act as though there’s no primary election next week.  No opponents, no contest, no question that he will cruise to an unprecedented fifth term. He’s barely bothering to raise money, nor is he spending much. There were no television or radio ad buys through the end of May, though some are coming soon, according to the mayor’s campaign finance filings. There have been few mailers and a paucity of lawn signs. Brown barely mentions the June 22 Democratic primary in public, unless compelled by reporters. He has flat-out refused to debate India Walton, his[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Mar 25

2021

Buffalo mayor’s race is on

Published by

Updated on March 26, 9:27am. India Walton, the long-shot challenger to incumbent Byron Brown in the Democratic primary for Buffalo mayor, passed three milestones in the past month: She won the endorsement of the Working Families Party, providing her a ballot line in the general election, should she fail to beat Brown in the June 22 primary. She picked up the endorsement of People’s Action, a national coalition of progressive activists and politicians, which comes with access to phone banks and fundraising. Most importantly, from a pragmatic standpoint, today Walton filed a nominating petition at the Erie County Board of[...]

Posted 3 years ago
Investigative Post

Get our newsletters delivered to your inbox * indicates required

Newsletters *