Tag: Politics

Dec 23

2024

Scanlon campaign violated ethics laws

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Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon. Chris Scanlon, Buffalo’s acting mayor, hasn’t yet formally declared his candidacy for a full four-year term, but already he’s stumbled over laws prohibiting incumbents from using their offices to promote their campaigns. Scanlon last Thursday held a fundraiser — checks payable to his campaign committee — at developer Doug Jemal’s Seneca One building in downtown Buffalo. Invitations to the fundraiser were mailed in envelopes that used the mayor’s second-floor office for a return address. That’s a violation of local, state and federal laws that prohibit public employees from using their offices for political purposes. Investigative Post[...]

Posted 1 month ago

Dec 3

2024

Buffalo’s ‘power structure is the problem’

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Government policies pushed by the region’s traditional power brokers — real estate developers, bankers, law firms and other business interests — have been “a disaster for the people of Buffalo,” a new report concludes.  Tax abatements and subsidies are contributing to “a deepening commercial real estate crisis” downtown, according to the report, released last month by Our City Action Buffalo, a progressive community advocacy group that is a frequent critic of the city’s elected officials.  Opposition to affordable housing projects has exacerbated the city’s poverty problems, according to the report.  What’s more, Buffalo is staring at a fiscal crisis engendered[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Nov 17

2024

Way too many people can’t read – adults and kids

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The numbers are shocking. “Illiteracy has become such a serious problem in our country that 130 million adults are now unable to read a simple story to their children,” reports the National Literacy Institute. That’s half the adult population.  That same half has difficulty performing such basic tasks such as reading the labels of their prescription drugs. A little more than half of adults read below a sixth grade reading level. One in five are flat out illiterate. A majority of Americans don’t read a single book through the course of a year. Only one-in-three kids read for pleasure. Etc.[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Nov 14

2024

How Erie County voted for president

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The Democratic presidential ticket’s margin of victory in Erie County was provided by voters in the City of Buffalo. Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz won the county by 42,243 votes, according to the current count. She won Buffalo by 46,765, snagging more than three-quarters of the ballots cast by city voters. The Democrats also won by lesser but still substantial margins in the towns of Amherst, Tonawanda and Aurora, and squeaked out victories in Cheektowaga and Lackawanna. The rest of the county registered various shades of red, ranging from pinkish communities like Orchard Park, Hamburg and[...]

Posted 3 months ago

Nov 13

2024

Cheektowaga’s faded blue electorate

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As goes Cheektowaga, so goes the nation, former Buffalo News political reporter Bob McCarthy likes to say.  The McCarthy maxim held true in 2016, when Cheektowaga voters broke by the thinnest of margins for Republican Donald Trump, and in 2020, when they favored Democrat Joe Biden. This year the results were mixed: The Democratic presidential candidate won the town but lost the race nationwide. However, Republicans made rare and important gains in local races. Unofficial results show Democrat Kamala Harris carrying Cheektowaga by about 4 percentage points, or just shy of 1,700 votes. Her margin of victory in the town[...]

Posted 3 months ago

Nov 10

2024

The numbers behind the vote for president

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Let’s unpack the presidential vote. For starters, fewer people voted this year (145 million) than four years ago (158.5 million) despite an estimated growth of 8 million age-eligible citizens. The turnout of registered voters also dropped slightly from four years ago. This helps to explain why Donald Trump won with fewer votes this year (73.6 million) than he garnered in losing (74.2 million) four years ago. He won because Harris received far fewer votes (69.3 million) than Biden (81.3 million) did four years ago. Put another way: Trump did not grow his base. Harris lost a chunk of Biden’s. Closer[...]

Posted 3 months ago

Nov 7

2024

Harris’ underwhelming victory in New York State

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Kamala Harris won New York State on Tuesday. Or, more accurately, she won New York City, whose voters provided her margin of victory. She also won in counties with urban centers — Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Albany — while losing Long Island and most of rural upstate. Harris this year drew 900,000 fewer votes in New York State than Joe Biden did in 2020. Biden beat Trump that year by 23 percentage points, as did Hillary Clinton in 2016. Harris’s margin of victory was just shy of 12 percent.  Trump, meanwhile, has gained support with each appearance on the ballot[...]

Posted 3 months ago

Nov 6

2024

Election results: A rare incumbent loss, lots of no-contests

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There are still some votes to count and results have not been certified, but most of Tuesday’s local races are pretty well resolved. A few notable results, based on election night numbers: In the region’s most expensive contest, for Erie County district attorney, Democrat Mike Keane beat deep-pocketed Republican James Gardner by nearly 20 percentage points. Keane has been acting DA since John Flynn stepped down at the end of March to join the Lippes Matthias law firm, making him a quasi-incumbent. The two candidates spent more than $1 million between them, according to the latest tally by the state[...]

Posted 3 months ago
Investigative Post