Tag: Politics

Oct 29

2025

Voters have limited choices in next week’s elections

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There are 150 elected offices on the ballot in Erie County next week. Fewer than half of those races are contested. Little wonder voter engagement is so low. In countywide elections, there are 21 jobs up for grabs: all 11 seats on the legislature, eight judgeships, the office of comptroller and sheriff. (Two of those judgeships are on the state Supreme Court, Eighth Judicial District, which includes eight counties, including Erie.)  Voters have a choice between candidates in only six races — for comptroller and five legislative seats. The candidates for judge are all cross-endorsed by multiple parties, and there[...]

Posted 2 days ago

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[...]

Posted 3 days ago

Oct 23

2025

From conservative to kinda crazy

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Back in the day, Republican leaders in Western New York were conservatives. Congressmen like Jack Kemp and Jack Quinn. Erie County Executive Ed Rutkowski. State Senator George Maziarz. Party chairmen like Bob Davis and Jim Domagalski. Party leadership started down a slippery slope a couple of decades ago. Carl Paladino switched party affiliation from Democrat to Republican in 2005 after his friend Tony Masiello, a Democrat, retired from public office. Mike Caputo, an operative who learned at the feet of Roger Stone, became a player locally when he ran Paladino’s 2010 gubernatorial campaign and his influence grew from there. Nick[...]

Posted 1 week ago

Oct 20

2025

The Niagara County angle to national scandal

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You may have read about the private chats among Young Republican operatives in four states, including New York, that went public via a report by Politico, which summarized the content as follows: They referred to Black people as monkeys and “the watermelon people” and mused about putting their political opponents in gas chambers. They talked about raping their enemies and driving them to suicide and lauded Republicans who they believed support slavery. Then there was the quote “I love Hitler.” The response from MAGA types varied. The New York Republican Party disbanded the state chapter of the Young Republicans. Vice[...]

Posted 2 weeks ago

Oct 15

2025

James Gardner: A political profile

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James Gardner, the Republican and Conservative party candidate for Buffalo mayor, knows he’s fighting an uphill battle. Nearly two-thirds of the city’s registered voters are Democrats. They outnumber Republicans and Conservatives by a 6-to-1 margin. Voters haven’t installed a Republican in the mayor’s office in over 60 years. Still, Gardner believes the city’s many woes — dire finances, crumbling infrastructure, diminished services — present an opportunity for change. “My message is a simple one,” Gardner told Investigative Post in an interview last month. “This is what 60 years of one-party rule will get you. You have to change the way[...]

Posted 2 weeks ago

Oct 14

2025

Michael Gainer: A political profile

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Michael Gainer moved to Buffalo 20 years ago, just as Byron Brown was campaigning for his first term as mayor — the office Gainer is seeking as an independent candidate in next month’s election.  An educator with construction experience, Gainer had picked up a job doing renovations on a house on Chapin Parkway. One day as he was working, listening to public radio, he heard Brown describe his plan to demolish 10,000 derelict houses over the next decade.  Gainer quickly did some math on a napkin. “It was like half a billion dollars,” he said. “We were going to spend[...]

Posted 2 weeks ago

Oct 13

2025

Will a judge and jury believe this narc?

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To hear Erie County Sheriff John Garcia tell it, D.J. Granville has an unblemished record as his chief of narcotics. Except he doesn’t, as reported by Charlie Specht. The key evidence seized from a Buffalo home associated with [David] Burgin was thrown out of court after Granville and other members of his narco unit were caught on video allegedly staging evidence, conducting illegal searches, and misleading a judge, court records show. A federal judge wrote that the case revealed “damning evidence of … unlawful conduct by law enforcement officers” and said Granville’s actions were “an egregious violation of the Fourth[...]

Posted 3 weeks ago

Oct 10

2025

Watch: IP’s Geoff Kelly on Capital Tonight

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Buffalo’s mayoral election is 25 days away. State Sen. Sean Ryan, the Democratic nominee, is the odds-on favorite to prevail.  Investigative Post’s Geoff Kelly appeared Thursday on Spectrum News’ Capital Tonight with Susan Arbetter to discuss the state of the race, as well as the brewing fight among Ryan’s fellow Democrats over who will fill his Senate seat come January. The scrapping over Ryan’s seat, which has been unfolding in the background for months, burst into the open on Thursday, when Ryan’s longtime political ally, Assembly Member Jonathan Rivera, declared his candidacy for the job. Zellner and Rivera both have[...]

Posted 3 weeks ago
Investigative Post