Oct 28
2025
Gardner spends big on mayor’s race
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James Gardner, the Republican candidate for Buffalo mayor, has spent close to $400,000 of his own money on his campaign in the past three months.
That puts the former prosecutor and judicial clerk on pace to spend at least $500,000 out of pocket before next Tuesday’s election — about the same amount he spent last year in his unsuccessful bid for Erie County District Attorney.
Meanwhile, State Sen. Sean Ryan continues to coast toward election day, having spent big to win June’s Democratic primary, and independent candidate Michael Gainer is running a shoe-leather campaign with little money but lots of energy.
The Gardner campaign’s 11-day pre-general election campaign finance disclosure, filed on Friday, shows the candidate using more than $235,000 of his own money for campaign expenses in October — mostly the costs of TV and online advertising.
Gardner also picked up the tab for another $50,000 in campaign costs late last week, according to notices filed with the state elections board after the cutoff date for his committee’s 11-day filing.
The committee’s first disclosure, filed at the beginning of October, showed Gardner spending $107,000 on his campaign.
Donate to support our nonprofit newsroomGardner is also running on the Conservative Party line. He was the Republican and Conservative candidate for Erie County District Attorney last year, a race he lost by about 20 percentage points to then-Acting District Attorney Michael Keane, a Democrat. Gardner — whose great-great-grandfather founded The Buffalo News — spent $500,000 out of pocket on that contest.
Ryan, the Democratic nominee for mayor who is also running on the Working Families Party line, spent about $85,000 in October, according to last week’s disclosure — less than one-third the amount Gardner spent. Most of that was for TV ads.
The state senator’s campaign committee raised just $29,000 in October and had a little over $16,000 left in the bank last week, according to the filing.
That’s a stark contrast to Ryan’s torrid spending in the run-up to June’s Democratic primary, in which he prevailed over four other candidates, including Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon. Ryan — who carried his party’s endorsement in the primary — spent about $1.5 million to win that race; Scanlon spent about $1.4 million.
Gainer’s campaign isn’t so much self-funded as it is self-propelled.
The Buffalo ReUse and ReUse Action founder has raised just over $10,000 since January. So far he’s put up $3,000 of his own money, according to his filings with the state elections board. Real estate investor Bill Breeser, contractor John Gulick and restaurateur Mark Supples kicked in $1,000 each.
Gainer’s committee has spent a little over $9,000 since January, according to filings, mostly on promotional materials — signs, literature and t-shirts.
He’s running on the Restore Buffalo ballot line, which he and Betty Jean Grant created after both were disqualified from competing in the Democratic primary. Grant is challenging incumbent Taisha St. Jean Tard for the Erie County Legislature District 2 seat, which she held previously.
There were as of February close to 151,000 registered voters in the city, nearly two-thirds of them Democrats. Registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans and Conservatives by a six-to-one margin.
Independent voters, registered with no party, account for 22 percent of the city electorate.
Buffalo voters have not elected a Republican to the mayor’s office in 60 years. The city’s last Republican office-holder was former University District Council Member Kevin Helfer, who left office a quarter-century ago.
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