Tag: Politics

Apr 28

2025

A Buffalo mayoral poll, plus city budget news

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There was a poll out in the field last week gauging Buffalo voters’ opinions of two Democratic candidates for mayor and the campaign messages they’ve been testing out against one another. I took the survey on my landline at home last Tuesday evening. I took what felt like an abbreviated version of the same poll by text the next day. Six Democrats have qualified to run in the June primary, but the poll focused squarely on two of them: Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon and state Sen. Sean Ryan, who has the Democratic endorsement for the June primary. Two Democrats on[...]

Posted 45 minutes ago

Apr 22

2025

Scanlon considers “privatization” of Kleinhans

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The Scanlon administration has been talking about unloading city-owned cultural institutions as part of its efforts to shore up Buffalo’s short- and long-term finances. Since taking office, Acting Mayor Christopher Scanlon and his aides have discussed selling Kleinhans Music Hall, perhaps to the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, which is the venue’s principal user. They also have discussed shifting the maintenance costs of city-owned cultural venues — including Kleinhans, Shea’s Buffalo Theater, Sahlen Field, the Buffalo History Museum, the Buffalo Museum of Science and the Buffalo Zoo — to Erie County.  Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz threw cold water on that idea,[...]

Posted 6 days ago

Apr 21

2025

Who’ll make the primary ballot?

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Attorney Jessica Kulpit is a lock to be elected to an Erie County Court judgeship this November. There are two county judgeships on the ballot this fall and, as is so often the case around here, exactly the same number of candidates to choose from. Kulpit and incumbent James Bargnesi — both Democrats — will appear on the Democratic, Republican, Conservative and Working Families party lines. The cross-endorsement deal between parties also ensures the reelection of incumbent Erie County Family Court Judge Brenda Freedman, a Republican who will have the Democratic and Conservative lines, as well as that of her[...]

Posted 7 days ago

Jan 31

2025

Calling out Jeremy Zellner

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Updated: 3:57 p.m. I write this post staring at the tweet posted below by Jeremy Zellner, chairman of the Erie County Democratic party. In it, he takes our Geoff Kelly to task for reporting on the forum the party hosted on Saturday where eight mayoral candidates were invited to speak to party committee members from the city. According to Zellner, more than 200 committee members attended. The forum kicked off with a question to the candidates posed by Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz: Would the candidates promise not to seek the endorsement of the local Republican and Conservative parties?  The[...]

Posted 3 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 3 months ago

Jan 27

2025

Trump sets the table for lawlessness

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I expected Trump’s first week in office to be terrible. It was worse than terrible, in so many ways.  I want to focus on Trump’s use of pardons. It wasn’t just those given to the January 6 insurrectionists.  Consider: Trump also pardoned Ross Ulbricht, who was serving a life sentence for running a website used to sell drugs in what the FBI called “the most sophisticated and extensive criminal marketplace on the internet.” Trump called the prosecutors who put Ulbricht in jail “scum.” The president also gave pardons to two white Washington, D.C., cops responsible for the death of a[...]

Posted 3 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 3 months ago

Jan 20

2025

Welcome to 1933

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Donald Trump is sworn in as president today. Welcome to 1933. That’s the year Adolf Hitler came to power. I’m not saying Trump will be another Hitler, but there are eerie parallels to their respective routes to power that should not be ignored. Trump’s more contemporary prototype is Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, termed “the ultimate twenty-first-century dictator.”    An op-ed in last week’s New York Times described Orbán’s playbook: In a second term, Mr. Trump’s actions may be even more dangerous because he is now following the playbook created by Viktor Orban, the prime minister of Hungary, who after losing and then[...]

Posted 3 months ago
Investigative Post