The money behind Buffalo’s mayoral candidates

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Buffalo mayoral hopefuls (from left): Chris Scanlon, Rasheed Wyatt, Sean Ryan, Garnell Whitfield, Jr. 

The top two contenders for Buffalo mayor are both starting this election cycle with about a half million dollars in their campaign accounts. But their donor bases and the pace of their fundraising are far different.

Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon has been on a tear, raising more money since he took office in October than he raised in 12 years as a member of the Common Council, with much of his money coming from the real estate developers and city contractors who bankrolled his predecessor, Byron Brown.

State Sen. Sean Ryan, meanwhile, has tapped longtime supporters — especially lawyers and labor unions — to add to the substantial sum he raised but didn’t spend for his successful re-election effort last fall.

Two other declared contenders, former Buffalo Fire Commissioner Garnell Whitfield and University District Councilmember Rasheed Wyatt, lagged far behind Scanlon and Ryan, which may signal trouble for their candidacies going forward.

James Payne, an educator and activist, has not registered a campaign committee with the state elections board, which he must do if he intends to raise or spend any money on his campaign. 

Businessman and community activist Michael Gainer, who officially launched his campaign this week, opened a fundraising committee last Tuesday, after the Jan. 10 cutoff date for the latest round of campaign finance disclosures. The same goes for  James McLeod, a former Buffalo City Court judge, who opened a campaign committee last Friday. 

Both candidates will have to release disclosures May 23, the next mandatory filing date. 

By then voters will know who has qualified for the June 24 ballot, and under what party lines. Candidates can begin collecting the 2,000 valid signatures they need to qualify for the primary ballot on Feb. 25. Petitions are due to the board of elections April 3. 

Thus far Scanlon — who enjoys the benefits of a quasi-incumbent in this race — has the momentum.

Scanlon’s money

In his 12 years as a city lawmaker, Scanlon’s campaign committee raised $402,000. He ran in one contested race, back in 2012, and was reelected three times thereafter without facing an opponent.

Since last July, he’s raised more than $564,000 — and $490,000 of that money came in after he became acting mayor in October.

His leading donors are real estate developers — their companies and the families that own and run them.

Building Foundations & Landmark Opportunities PAC, which donated $5,000, is controlled by former U.S. Rep Brian Higgins. The South Buffalo politician, now president of Shea’s Performing Arts Center — whose facilities are owned by the city — created the political action committee with nearly $800,000 leftover from his now-defunct congressional campaign account. The PAC as of November had disbursed more than $500,000 in political and charitable contributions, including to Shea’s, according to federal filings.

Scanlon’s top six donors — the Zemskys, Paladinos, Nanulas, Sinatras, Brinkworths and David Pawlik — were also major financial supporters of Byron Brown’s 2021 write-in campaign. Scanlon helped coordinate that effort in South Buffalo, which carried Brown to victory that November.

Notably absent from Scanlon’s disclosure last week were two developers who also were underwriters of Brown’s re-election: Douglas Jemal and Rocco Termini. Scanlon in December held a combination campaign fundraiser/holiday toy drive at Jemal’s Seneca One building.

Scanlon has also collected substantial donations from companies that do business with the city. A review of donors giving $1,000 or more to his committee shows $40,000 in donations from companies and their executives who the city has paid more than $48 million over the past four years, according to city vendor records.

As a councilmember, more than half of Scanlon’s campaign money came in donations of $100 or less. And about half of those small donations were unitemized, meaning there was no name attached to the money — which is legal so long as the donors gave no more than $99.

As a mayoral candidate, he’s been collecting money in bigger chunks. More than one-quarter of campaign money he raised since October came in donations of $5,000 or more. Nearly three-quarters of his total came in donations of $1,000 or more.

In his dozen years on the Council, the city’s police and firefighters unions gave Scanlon about $20,000 between them. In the past six months they’ve kicked in $10,000 — $7,500 from the police union, $2,500 from the firefighters.

In a statement last week, Scanlon said he was “truly humbled” by the financial support he’s received thus far.

Ryan’s money

Scanlon may enjoy the support of the police and fire unions, but Ryan has plenty of labor support as well, particularly from statewide and regional offices.

Ryan’s fundraising over the past six months has been spread over three campaign accounts: Ryan for Senate, which he used for his re-election bid last year; Ryan for Buffalo, his mayoral campaign account; and the Sean Ryan Victory Fund, which he created last summer.

Since he was first elected to the state Assembly in 2011, Ryan’s campaign committees have raised over $3 million — three-quarters of it in chunks of $1,000 or more. Labor unions and their lawyers have been top donors, as have various Democratic Party leaders and candidate committees. The Senate Democrats’ campaign committee and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins alone have donated more than $250,000.

So far, his mayoral campaign’s efforts have been less lucrative, but the base of support is similar. Between his three committees, Ryan took in about $46,000 over six weeks. His top donors were labor unions and lawyers like himself.

There is some overlap between Ryan’s past donors and Scanlon’s recent supporters. 

For example, Howard and Leslie Zemsky, the developers behind Larkinville in South Buffalo, dropped $23,500 into Ryan’s campaign accounts over the past dozen years, with the most recent donation in November 2023. 

This election cycle  the couple has given Ryan nothing, while showering Scanlon with money.

There are some folks who are writing checks to both the leading mayoral contenders. Lobbyist Victor Martucci, for example, gave Ryan for Buffalo $500 last month. His business partner, former Buffalo Mayor Tony Masiello, has given Scanlon $1,500 since October — plus another $500 in the name of their firm, which has contracts with the city.

Ryan told Investigative Post last week his campaign has been "getting contributions from lots of first-time donors." He expected fundraising efforts to ramp up through the petitioning process and as the primary date grows nearer.

"People are ready for change and are chipping in what they can," he said.

Whitfield and Wyatt

The only two Black candidates to file campaign finance disclosures last week had little to report.

Wyatt, the University District councilmember, raised a little over $10,000. He collected about a third of that at a small fundraiser last month.

Whitfield, the former fire commissioner, raised over $30,000. About a third of that came from him and members of his family. 

Whitfield in September engaged an experienced Democratic strategist as his campaign manager. Kevin O’Brien was veteran of national campaigns and a top aide to former New York City Mayor Bill DiBlasio before derailing his career with a series of sexual harassment scandals. 

O’Brien stepped away from the Whitfield campaign earlier this month. 

Whitfield acknowledged O’Brien’s departure was precipitated in part by sluggish fundraising. The candidate characterized his campaign as “a startup” that lacks “the fundraising machinery” of Ryan’s and Scanlon’s organizations. He said he intended to see the race through to the end, and that fundraising would be a focus in the coming weeks.

“But I don’t want this to be just about money,” he told Investigative Post. “This race shouldn't be just about money.”

Geoff Kelly