Categories for PoliticalPost

Apr 7

2025

Big turnout in mayor’s race already

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Seven candidates for Buffalo mayor last week filed nominating petitions bearing the signatures of nearly 27,000 city voters. That’s more voters than took part in the 2013 and 2021 Democratic primaries for mayor. It’s nearly as many as cast valid ballots in 2005 and 2017. Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon led the pack with a whopping 7,565 signatures, nearly four times the number needed to qualify for the ballot. Garnell Whitfield, the former fire commissioner, filed the second-highest number of signatures, with 4,315. University District Council Member Rasheed Wyatt had more than 3,800 signatures, according to The Buffalo News. State Sen. Sean[...]

Posted 7 months ago

Mar 31

2025

D.J. Granville and the “blue wall of silence”

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At the heart of the scandal enveloping Erie County Sheriff John Garcia and his chief of narcotics, D.J. Granville, is the so-called “blue wall of silence” — the unwritten understanding that law enforcement officers protect one another by refusing to report or corroborate wrongdoing among their ranks. For nearly a year Granville has been protected by that code. A deposition the narcotics chief gave for a lawsuit in November — nearly seven months after the incident that in recent weeks has made him famous — illustrates his own commitment to it. First, a refresher: Granville last April 11, while driving his[...]

Posted 7 months ago

Jan 29

2025

Does the GOP have a place in race for Buffalo mayor?

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Editor’s note: Scanlon on Friday clarified his position with Investigative Post, saying neither he nor his campaign staff have been in contact with Republican or Conservative party officials and stating that he would not accept their nomination for mayor. See related story. The race for Buffalo mayor this week was marked by a testy exchange between the frontrunners over Democratic Party values, a new candidate and rumors of another yet to come, and the resurfacing of a Byron Brown political operative. The clash between frontrunners happened at last weekend’s mayoral candidates forum hosted by the Erie County Democratic Committee. After[...]

Posted 9 months ago

Jan 22

2025

Vetting wannabe mayors from an East Side perspective

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Last week a group of East Side leaders met with declared candidates for Buffalo mayor to quiz them on issues ranging from city finances to investment in the city’s predominantly Black neighborhoods. The Urban Think Tank comprises prominent Black religious leaders, such as Bishops Darius Pridgen and Michael Badger, as well as business people, lawyers, elected officials and community activists.  City voters will choose Buffalo’s first new mayor since 2006 in this year’s primary and general elections. Samuel Radford III, an Urban Think Tank member, told Investigative Post the group wanted to see where the list of candidates — the[...]

Posted 9 months ago

Nov 14

2024

How Erie County voted for president

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The Democratic presidential ticket’s margin of victory in Erie County was provided by voters in the City of Buffalo. Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz won the county by 42,243 votes, according to the current count. She won Buffalo by 46,765, snagging more than three-quarters of the ballots cast by city voters. The Democrats also won by lesser but still substantial margins in the towns of Amherst, Tonawanda and Aurora, and squeaked out victories in Cheektowaga and Lackawanna. The rest of the county registered various shades of red, ranging from pinkish communities like Orchard Park, Hamburg and[...]

Posted 12 months ago

Nov 13

2024

Cheektowaga’s faded blue electorate

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As goes Cheektowaga, so goes the nation, former Buffalo News political reporter Bob McCarthy likes to say.  The McCarthy maxim held true in 2016, when Cheektowaga voters broke by the thinnest of margins for Republican Donald Trump, and in 2020, when they favored Democrat Joe Biden. This year the results were mixed: The Democratic presidential candidate won the town but lost the race nationwide. However, Republicans made rare and important gains in local races. Unofficial results show Democrat Kamala Harris carrying Cheektowaga by about 4 percentage points, or just shy of 1,700 votes. Her margin of victory in the town[...]

Posted 12 months ago

Nov 6

2024

Election results: A rare incumbent loss, lots of no-contests

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There are still some votes to count and results have not been certified, but most of Tuesday’s local races are pretty well resolved. A few notable results, based on election night numbers: In the region’s most expensive contest, for Erie County district attorney, Democrat Mike Keane beat deep-pocketed Republican James Gardner by nearly 20 percentage points. Keane has been acting DA since John Flynn stepped down at the end of March to join the Lippes Matthias law firm, making him a quasi-incumbent. The two candidates spent more than $1 million between them, according to the latest tally by the state[...]

Posted 12 months ago

Oct 17

2024

Mayoral hopeful enlists advisor with checkered past

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Six years ago Kevin O’Brien’s career as a sought-after Democratic political strategist appeared to be over, consumed by a sexual harassment scandal that cost him his job as a top aide to then New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. Today O’Brien, 42, is in Buffalo. He’s advising Garnell Whitfield, the former fire commissioner who is expected to announce his candidacy for Buffalo mayor sometime after next month’s general election. “He’s nationally experienced,” Whitfield told Investigative Post. “He’s not from here. He’s not part of the status quo here. He brings fresh eyes to the problems of this city.” Garnell[...]

Posted 1 year ago
Investigative Post