It wasn’t a good election for the party bosses in Erie County. Not only did their candidates get wiped out in the only two big races – Buffalo mayor and Erie County sheriff – but the Republicans, clinging to their quadrennial manipulation, squandered a golden opportunity to produce a Republican mayor for the city.
Had Republicans fielded a candidate for mayor, that individual would have been in a strong position to make that case that solidly Democratic Buffalo would be better off with an experienced Republican mayor than with the Democrats’ winning candidate – India Walton, a self-described socialist and a political neophyte.
But, as usual, the Republicans fielded no candidate. For them it’s always been about strategy rather than democracy. By forgoing the mayor’s race, they can depress the city’s Democratic turnout in November, making it easier for them to win countywide races, including for sheriff and comptroller.
People are also reading…
It’s been an effective, if cynical, strategy. It’s not the only reason that Republicans have held the sheriff’s office for more than 20 years, but it’s likely helped.
The price has been to ignore the benefits of giving Buffalo Republicans a candidate to support for mayor. Never mind the democratic imperative of providing the kind of check that an election can provide or of making the case to moderate Democrats that there could be another way. Instead, try to manipulate the vote and, with that, blow the best chance this party has ever had to make inroads in decades.
It was a grievous misstep, though it’s not the only one and Republicans weren’t alone in making them. Indeed, if reputations can be made and lost in a primary election, both the Republican and Democratic organizations came away battered. In the races for sheriff and mayor, both parties’ endorsed candidates lost, and did it in convincing fashion.
The Democratic mayoral disaster is international news. Walton, a community activist who has never held public office, waged an impassioned campaign against Byron W. Brown, a four-term incumbent with the kind of experience that undergirds good judgment – and came out on top. In a low-turnout election, she won 52% of the vote to Brown’s 45%. A third candidate, Le’Candice Durham, got 3%. With that, and with no Republican candidate on the November ballot, a novice is primed to take the reins in New York’s second-largest city.
That’s Brown’s failure, first and foremost. He ran his campaign as though the outcome was a foregone conclusion. But it’s the party’s disaster, as well. Now, Brown is considering a write-in campaign for November and, given the low turnout this week, along with Walton’s political and experiential baggage, it's hardly a surprise.
Democrats did no better in the sheriff’s race, where their endorsed candidate, Brian J. Gould, the deputy police chief in Cheektowaga, was beaten by Kimberly Beaty, a former deputy commissioner in the Buffalo Police Department and now the public safety director at Canisius College.
Republicans did no better, with their favored candidate, Karen Healy-Case, falling to challenger John C. Garcia. Both are retired from the Buffalo Police Department and working in private security.
The sheriff’s candidates are hoping to succeed four-term incumbent Timothy Howard and, true to New York’s convoluted election rules, all of the same candidates – winners and losers – will be on November’s ballot, at least on minor party lines. So far, at least, they include Myles Carter, an activist who drew just 10% of the Democratic vote.
Since Tuesday, Gould has said he will stop campaigning and will support Beaty, but yet another candidate, one who didn’t run in the primary, has his own independent line on the general election ballot.
That’s Ted DiNoto, a police detective in Amherst who bypassed the Republican primary to run on his own independent line this fall. Republicans are trying to knock him off it. Too bad they didn’t try putting someone on the mayoral line.
• • •
What’s your opinion? Send it to us at lettertoeditor@buffnews.com. Letters should be a maximum of 300 words and must convey an opinion. The column does not print poetry, announcements of community events or thank-you letters. A writer or household may appear only once every 30 days. All letters are subject to fact-checking and editing.
