Jan 29
2025
Does the GOP have a place in race for Buffalo mayor?
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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 eight candidates vying for the Democratic endorsement introduced themselves, the floor was opened to questions from members of the party’s city committee. First up at the microphone was Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz, who is a committee member in the city’s Ellicott District.
Poloncarz wanted to know if all eight candidates would join him and other Democratic county and city elected officials across the country in taking a pledge “to do our best to fight the Donald Trump agenda, which is going to destroy cities.”
As “a corollary,” he said, he wanted to know if they would all pledge to “not seek, or accept if offered to you, the Conservative and Republican lines” in the November general election.
The question seemed designed to box in Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon.
Democratic mayoral frontrunners Chris Scanlon and Sean Ryan.
There has been much speculation since Scanlon took office in October that he might run this November on the GOP and/or the Conservative Party lines if Democratic committee members endorse another candidate in the June primary — or if a crowded field of candidates made the race for the Democratic line on the ballot feel unpredictable.
There’s precedent to that tactic: The late Jimmy Griffin, who Scanlon’s father served as patronage czar, won his first term in 1977 on the Conservative Party line, after losing the Democratic primary to Assembly Deputy Speaker Arthur Eve.
In 2001, Mayor Anthony Masiello won a third term with the endorsement of both the Republican and Democratic parties. Scanlon’s predecessor, Byron Brown, won reelection on the Conservative and Democratic party lines in 2009 and 2013.
Poloncarz wanted a yes-or-no answer from each candidate. He didn’t get that from Scanlon or his chief rival, state Sen. Sean Ryan. Scanlon was equivocal. Ryan said he would not seek support outside the Democratic Party, then used the question to draw attention to the Republican and Conservative Party stalwarts among the acting mayor’s supporters and campaign donors.
Ryan noted that developer Carl Paladino, a former Republican candidate for governor, endorsed Scanlon and co-hosted a fundraiser for him. He pointed out that developer Nick Sinatra, once a staffer in Republican George W. Bush’s White House, is a big donor, too.
Paladino companies and family members gave Scanlon’s campaign nearly $30,000 over the past six months. Other notable Republican supporters include Dennis Vacco, the former state attorney general; Jeffrey Williams, a fundraiser for the state GOP; and businessman Kent Frey, a major donor to local Republican candidates.
“I know the Republican and Conservative establishment haven’t joined together to raise $200,000 for me,” Ryan said. “I will only work with Democrats, and I don’t know why anyone who is working with Republicans is looking for the endorsement of the Democratic Party.”
Donate to support our nonprofit newsroomScanlon’s response was noncommittal.
“I am here seeking the Democratic endorsement for the office of mayor and will work with the Democratic Party to that end,” he said.
The acting mayor later added, in rebuttal to Ryan, that he was “sick and tired” of the suggestion that his commitment to Democratic Party values was compromised by his support from those with other political affiliations. They donate, he said, “because they think I’m the best candidate.”
The other six candidates on the stage were more succinct in their answers. James Payne, an educator and community activist, said he “absolutely would not” seek the party lines, adding only that his community — Buffalo’s East Side — was devastated long before Trump became president.
Former Buffalo Fire Commissioner Garnell Whitfield echoed that sentiment.
“It’s a no,” Whitfield said on seeking other party lines. “But there’s no one I won’t work with if they’re working on behalf of we the people.”
Activist and businessman Michael Gainer, former Buffalo City Court Judge James McLeod, and University District Councilmember Rasheed Wyatt all gave unequivocal nos. So did Maggie Harter, a transgender community activist who lives on the East Side. She concurred with Ryan that it wasn’t just about whether a candidate would seek or accept a competing party’s ballot line, but “who you would take money from.”
Harter is the newest entrant in the contest for the Democratic Party endorsement. A ninth aspirant, community activist Terry Robinson, was absent from Saturday’s forum.
The forum took place at the Adamski Social Center at St. Stanislaus church in the city’s Broadway-Fillmore neighborhood. It was the second of three such meetings of the party’s city committee members, who will have a say in whether the party endorses a candidate in the June primary — and, if it does, which one. The first was held Dec. 5 at the downtown convention center.
The forums are closed to the public and the news media. Only party committee members can attend and participate.
The third and final forum will be Feb. 18. The party’s county chairman, Jeremy Zellner, said that forum would be winnowed down to four candidates by a vote of city committee members.
There are a couple other new wrinkles in the race to become Buffalo’s first new mayor in 20 years.
Joseph Gramaglia
A number of sources tell Investigative Post that Joseph Gramaglia, who Scanlon ousted as Buffalo’s police commissioner two weeks ago, is considering entering the race.
Scanlon said Gramaglia resigned because the two had “different philosophies” on policing. But the city’s police union pushed for Gramaglia’s removal, and Scanlon wants the union’s support in his bid for a four-year term.
Meanwhile, a top Byron Brown aide whose tactics many blamed for the former mayor’s surprising loss in the 2021 Democratic primary is now advising the Scanlon campaign.
Betsey Ball, who served Brown from 2015 to 2022 as chief of staff and later deputy mayor, has been brought on as a campaign consultant, according to Scanlon’s deputy mayor, Brian Gould.
Ball managed Brown’s 2021 reelection bid, in which Brown pursued a “Rose Garden strategy” — barely campaigning, rarely mentioning the upcoming election, refusing to acknowledge challengers, in the hopes few voters would engage the race and those who did would reflexively return the incumbent to office. The strategy backfired. Brown lost the June primary to India Walton, before rallying to win a record fifth term that November by means of a write-in campaign.
Ball — whose brother, Tim, was Brown’s corporation counsel and whose husband, Peter Cutler, served as a Brown spokesman — left her job as deputy mayor four months later. She has been largely invisible in local politics since. She gave Gov. Kathy Hochul $1,500 that September, according to state board of elections filings. She was paid for some campaign work in 2023 for a judicial candidate in Dutchess County.
She gave Scanlon’s campaign committee $500 on Jan. 9, on top of another $500 in two donations in 2023.
Ball previously served as legislative affairs director for Gov. Andrew Cuomo and chief of staff for state Sen. Andrea Stewart-Cousins of Yonkers, currently the Senate Majority Leader.
