Tag: Politics

Feb 18

2026

Trump’s National Park nominee has conflict of interest

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The Roosevelt Arch at Yellowstone National Park. Photo via the National Park Service. President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the National Park Service already has an extensive history with that agency — as a corporate executive obtaining and managing federal contracts from it. That’s a departure from past park service directors, whose resumes typically have included positions in public land management, according to advocates.  Scott Socha, president of parks and resorts for Buffalo-based Delaware North, “has zero experience in public service or conservation,” said a spokesperson for Save Our Parks, a nonprofit formed last year to push back against the[...]

Posted 3 days ago

Feb 3

2026

India Walton to run for lieutenant governor

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Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado, who’s challenging Gov. Kathy Hochul in the June Democratic primary, has chosen Buffalo’s India Walton to be his running mate. Reached by text, Walton declined to confirm that the offer was made or that she’d accepted. Delgado’s campaign did not respond to multiple phone calls, emails, or messages on social media.  Delgado plans to announce his selection Wednesday. Walton, a nurse and community organizer, rose to political prominence in 2021 when she beat four-term incumbent Byron Brown in the Democratic primary for Buffalo mayor. It was her first run for elected office, and her primary victory[...]

Posted 2 weeks ago

Jan 7

2026

Special election set for Ryan’s Senate seat

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The special election to fill the 61st District state Senate seat — vacated last week by Sean Ryan before he was sworn in as Buffalo’s mayor — is coming as quickly as state law allows. Gov. Kathy Hochul last Friday set the date for Feb. 3. She could have picked a date as late as the first Tuesday in March, but instead chose the first possible Tuesday allowed under the law — just over a month after Ryan resigned the seat.  The move favors the four political parties with automatic ballot access in a special election process that already privileges[...]

Posted 1 month ago

Dec 30

2025

Geoff Kelly’s year in review

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This year my plate was full with Buffalo politics, as city voters were asked to elect the city’s first new mayor in 20 years. I kicked off the year, fittingly, with a three-part profile of Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon, who was at the time competing for the Democratic Party endorsement in June’s primary election.  This month, to ring out the year, Jim Heaney and I interviewed the guy who won the endorsement, the primary and November’s general election — incoming Mayor Sean Ryan. We did the interview in front of an audience at the Burchfield Penney Art Center. I also[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Dec 16

2025

Transcript: Buffalo Mayor-elect Sean Ryan interview

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  Buffalo Mayor-elect Sean Ryan sat for an interview on Dec. 12 with Investigative Post’s Jim Heaney and Geoff Kelly before a live audience at the Burchfield Penney Art Center. In the course of the 85-minute interview, Ryan responded to questions about a host of issues:  Balancing the city’s finances in the short and long term. Shaking up the culture of the city’s police department. Investing in quality, affordable housing, especially in East Side neighborhoods. Revitalizing downtown through event programming and infrastructure improvements. Improving educational outcomes by lifting kids out of poverty. Taking a lead role in the Kensington and[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Dec 16

2025

Q&A: Buffalo’s incoming Mayor Sean Ryan

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Sean Ryan, Buffalo’s mayor-elect, said in an interview Friday evening that he’s inheriting a City Hall that’s been “hollowed out” by poor management, with a “demoralized” workforce. Before a live audience at the Burchfield Penney Art Center, Ryan described vacant offices, a lack of communication within and between departments, unspent state grant money, and deferred maintenance of city infrastructure. And, naturally, the incoming mayor talked about the city’s dire financial straits: a structural budget imbalance of at least $50 million, no savings left to cover shortfalls, and escalating costs — especially overtime — exacerbated by stagnant revenues. “We’ve sort of[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Dec 15

2025

Survey: A lot of Bills fans are plowed at home games

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We’re closing in on Christmas, so I’ll start out a little less heavy than usual. A survey of fans attending NFL games found that Bills fans drink more than almost any fan base. Just shy of 16 percent of fans have at least five alcoholic beverages before and/or during games.  Put another way: Some 11,400 fans are plastered for games. Tailgating has something to do with it. Six in Ten Bills fans drink before they enter the stadium, according to the survey. Only the Arizona Cardinals had a higher percentage of fans boozing it up (18.5 percent) than the Bills[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Dec 10

2025

Interview: Drew Warshaw, candidate for state comptroller

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Drew Warshaw, candidate for New York State comptroller. New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli has been the state’s chief financial officer for 18 years. That’s long enough, according to Drew Warshaw, who hopes to compete the first contested primary election DiNapoli has faced in his long tenure. It’s “one of the most powerful offices in government,” Warshaw said in an interview with Investigative Post this week. And yet “virtually no one has ever heard” of it, many “can barely pronounce” it, and even fewer could name the man who’d held the office since 2007. The office’s power, Warshaw said, derives[...]

Posted 2 months ago
Investigative Post