The show of support for Mayor Byron Brown at the downtown ballpark Thursday wasn't exactly a grassroots effort. Numerous members of Brown's senior staff participated and spoke.
Wondering whether Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown is giving serious consideration to mounting a write-in campaign to keep his job in November?
The answer might have been in plain sight Thursday night at Sahlen Field, where Brown threw out the first pitch before the Toronto Blue Jays went on to drop the Baltimore Orioles, 9-0.
Outside the park, a crowd of Byron Brown supporters gathered in front of the main entrance to make a pitch of their own. They wore T-shirts bearing Browns name and carried signs reading Keep Byron Brown.
This was no extemporaneous, grassroots expression of support for the four-term incumbent, who lost the Democratic primary election Tuesday to upstart India Walton, sending shockwaves through the regions political and business establishments.
A lot of the people there, including many who spoke to the TV cameras capturing the event, are members of Browns inner circle. Others occupy important, high-paying bureaucratic jobs.
These included:
Petrucci is also an elected member of the Buffalo Board of Education. Also present was South District Council Member Chris Scanlon.
Browns spokesman, Mike DeGeorge who made $110,054 last year was spotted among the demonstrators, too, but he was at the ballpark to make sure the mayors ceremonial game-opening pitch went smoothly.
(For the record, it did: The mayors delivery was slow, but he got it right over home plate.)
Also there was Tom Smith, who earned $110,805 in 2019 as chief of staff for the Buffalo Sewer Authority. Smith was previously head of the Mayors Impact Team and has been an aide to Brown since he was a state senator. Smith is married to Jessica Maglietto Smith, a top aide to the mayor she made $96,477 in 2020 and his campaign treasurer.
The man who the demonstrators offered to TV cameras as a community spokesperson was R.J. Ball. Hes the brother of Betsey Ball and Tim Ball, the citys top attorney. R.J. Ball works for Empire State Development as director of industry development, a patronage gig that paid him $104,000 in 2019. Unlike his siblings, Ball serves at the pleasure of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, not the mayor.
As deputy mayor, Betsey Ball runs operations for the mayor inside City Hall the role once occupied by Steve Casey, who previously ran the mayors election campaigns. As such, Ball was responsible, at least in part, for the campaigns disastrous rose garden strategy: Until the week before election day, Brown acted as if there were no primary election, no opponent, no need to engage in the usual politicking at which Browns previous campaigns have been so adept.
In the final week, money poured into Browns campaign but it was too late.
The result of Browns blunder: Walton beat the four-term incumbent by 7 percent of Tuesdays low turnout. It is too late for Brown to get his name on another ballot line in November, leaving a write-in campaign his only option other than conceding his loss, which he has not done. Brown indicated on election night that hed wait until every vote had been counted and the results certified by the Board of Elections.
At the same time these riders of the patronage merry-go-round were agitating for their boss to keep the job he lost Tuesday night, developer Carl Paladino had called an emergency conclave of wealthy businessmen to discuss how to prevent Walton from taking office in January.
Paladino told those he invited his goal was to raise $1 million to fund a write-in campaign to keep Brown in office in Novembers general election. The meeting was postponed after Buffalo News political reporter Bob McCarthy wrote a piece calling attention to the planned meeting.
Paladino has a long history of clashing with Black elected officials, and until recently that included Brown. In 2009, he helped bankroll the mayoral campaign of South District Common Council Member Mickey Kearns, who lost in a landslide to Brown in the Democratic primary.
Paladino ran for governor in 2010, but his campaign was derailed by the publication of racist and pornographic emails hed shared with an email list of friends and business associates.
He later was elected to a seat on the Buffalo Board of Education, but was removed from office in 2017 after he made racist remarks about Barack and Michelle Obama to a weekly newspaper. He was an early supporter of Donald Trump and remains a hero of the regions conservative and alt-right movements.
Walton, meanwhile, has been receiving national attention for her victory. Shes been congratulated by prominent progressive figures including Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
That raises a fascinating prospect: Will Byron Brown, Buffalos first Black mayor, accept the backing of a guy like Paladino in an effort to defeat Walton, who is also Black and poised to become the citys first woman mayor?
If he does, what national figures and organizations will rush with money and volunteers to aid Waltons cause?
It could be a long, hot summer. And fall.
Paladino affirmed Friday to WGRZ-TV and other reporters that he had spoken to Brown and pledged his financial support, should Brown agree to a write-in campaign.
The mayor has not said whether he will do that, or whether hed accept Paladinos support if he does. But he told WGRZ-TV in a statement he was weighing the outpouring of support as he considers his next steps.
The rest is here:
Rallying to save their patronage jobs - Investigative Post
- The Grotesque Slander of Comparing Gaza Protesters to Neo-Nazis - The New Republic - April 29th, 2024 [April 29th, 2024]
- Joe Alt Is A Strong Fit For The Los Angeles Chargers - Sports Illustrated - April 29th, 2024 [April 29th, 2024]
- How The Manosphere Of Alt Right Content Targets Boys - BuzzFeed - April 29th, 2024 [April 29th, 2024]
- Say Hello To Joe Alt, Future Hall Of Fame Right Tackle - Barstool Sports - April 29th, 2024 [April 29th, 2024]
- An Alt-Right Icon Just Gave the Single Dumbest Seinfeld Take Ever - Cracked.com - April 4th, 2024 [April 4th, 2024]
- Ireland & Wales Rugby Fans Take On Alt-Right On Twitter - Balls.ie - February 18th, 2024 [February 18th, 2024]
- Doja Cat Reacts to Backlash Over Alt-Right Comedian T-Shirt: 'It Didn't Affect the World' - TooFab - December 19th, 2023 [December 19th, 2023]
- Doja Cat Responds To Backlash Over Alt-Right T-Shirt: 'It's Not An Attack' - HipHopDX - December 19th, 2023 [December 19th, 2023]
- Marvel and DC Writer Mark Waid Rejects Mark Millar's Call To Root Out Comic Book 'Cancel Pigs', Dishonestly Paints ... - Bounding Into Comics - December 19th, 2023 [December 19th, 2023]
- Maudlin Strangers unveil intense alt rock banger Im Not In The Right Mind [Video] - EARMILK - December 19th, 2023 [December 19th, 2023]
- The Dark Economics of Russell Brand - WIRED - September 23rd, 2023 [September 23rd, 2023]
- Pro-Kremlin Propagandist Ties to White Nationalist Movement ... - Southern Poverty Law Center - September 23rd, 2023 [September 23rd, 2023]
- Opinion | How to Argue Against Identity Politics Without Turning Into ... - The New York Times - September 23rd, 2023 [September 23rd, 2023]
- Anna Wintour: 'I just have to make sure things are being done right' - Financial Times - September 23rd, 2023 [September 23rd, 2023]
- Opinion | Donald Trumps Abortion Shell Game - The New York Times - September 23rd, 2023 [September 23rd, 2023]
- How to Treat Right-Wing Violence in the U.S. - The New Yorker - August 30th, 2023 [August 30th, 2023]
- Scalise, No. 2 House Republican, Says He Has Blood Cancer - The New York Times - August 30th, 2023 [August 30th, 2023]
- Emails reveal Secret Service contacts with Oath Keepers - Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington - August 30th, 2023 [August 30th, 2023]
- How Trump's Election Lies Left the Michigan G.O.P. Broken and ... - The New York Times - August 30th, 2023 [August 30th, 2023]
- Alt Right: A Primer on the New White Supremacy | ADL - March 2nd, 2023 [March 2nd, 2023]
- The Dangerous Subtlety of the Alt-Right Pipeline - March 2nd, 2023 [March 2nd, 2023]
- The Alt-Right Manipulated My Comic. Then A.I. Claimed It. - March 2nd, 2023 [March 2nd, 2023]
- Richard Spencer: Five Things to Know - Anti-Defamation League - February 20th, 2023 [February 20th, 2023]
- From Alt Right to Alt Lite: Naming the Hate - Anti-Defamation League - February 18th, 2023 [February 18th, 2023]
- Alt-right Definition & Meaning | Dictionary.com - February 18th, 2023 [February 18th, 2023]
- What Is QAnon, the Viral Pro-Trump Conspiracy Theory? - January 8th, 2023 [January 8th, 2023]
- Benedict XVIs Most Powerful Influence on the Catholic Church Came Before He Was Pope - The New Yorker - January 6th, 2023 [January 6th, 2023]
- Netflix Removed Kanye's 'Harmful Alt-Right Beliefs' From David ... - November 23rd, 2022 [November 23rd, 2022]
- Where Are All the Women on This Alt-Right, Anti-Choice, Toxic ... - November 23rd, 2022 [November 23rd, 2022]
- Forbes Gets Punked - Labels FTX Former CEO's Girlfriend a "New Darling ... - November 23rd, 2022 [November 23rd, 2022]
- Alt-Right Picks Wrong Side in Dutch Farm Crisis - November 23rd, 2022 [November 23rd, 2022]
- La Mirada Chamber Invited Alt-Right Racist to Moderate School Board ... - October 30th, 2022 [October 30th, 2022]
- Hate & Extremism | Southern Poverty Law Center - October 30th, 2022 [October 30th, 2022]
- America First Political Action Conference - Wikipedia - October 25th, 2022 [October 25th, 2022]
- Pepe the Frog - ADL - October 25th, 2022 [October 25th, 2022]
- Paul Joseph Watson - Wikipedia - October 25th, 2022 [October 25th, 2022]
- Jack Posobiec - Wikipedia - October 25th, 2022 [October 25th, 2022]
- QUIET - Wikipedia - October 25th, 2022 [October 25th, 2022]
- Shintaro Abe - Wikipedia - October 25th, 2022 [October 25th, 2022]
- #FireMcMaster, explained. How alt-right media and a handful of | by ... - October 23rd, 2022 [October 23rd, 2022]
- Right-wing politics - Wikipedia - October 23rd, 2022 [October 23rd, 2022]
- Real Viking History and the Imagined White Supremacist Past | Time - October 23rd, 2022 [October 23rd, 2022]
- More Toxic, Alt-Right, QAnonism | No Minister - October 23rd, 2022 [October 23rd, 2022]
- Steve Bannon's influence on conservative politics: Expert on alt-right explains - University of Colorado Boulder - October 23rd, 2022 [October 23rd, 2022]
- Alt-right - Wikipedia - October 17th, 2022 [October 17th, 2022]
- Alt Right: A Primer on the New White Supremacy - Anti-Defamation League - October 17th, 2022 [October 17th, 2022]
- How the Alt-Right Happened - American University - October 17th, 2022 [October 17th, 2022]
- Alt-right pipeline - Wikipedia - October 17th, 2022 [October 17th, 2022]
- Richard B. Spencer - Wikipedia - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- incel Meaning & Origin | Slang by Dictionary.com - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- red pill Meaning & Origin | Slang by Dictionary.com - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- Just The News - Media Bias/Fact Check - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- The Download: TikTok moral panics, and DeepMinds record-breaking AI - MIT Technology Review - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- Roe vs. Trump in the Michigan Midterms - The New Yorker - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- PhD student examines clash of masculine identities on internet hate site - University of Toronto - September 27th, 2022 [September 27th, 2022]
- Clickbait extremism, mass shootings, and the assault on democracy time for a rethink of social media? - The Conversation - September 27th, 2022 [September 27th, 2022]
- By Reading Brainwaves, an A.I. Aims to Predict What Words People Listened to - Smithsonian Magazine - September 15th, 2022 [September 15th, 2022]
- A Case of Rhabdomyolysis in a Young, Morbidly Obese, Asthmatic Woman With COVID-19 - Cureus - September 11th, 2022 [September 11th, 2022]
- Mothers of the movement: Leadership by alt-right women paves the way for violence - The Conversation - September 11th, 2022 [September 11th, 2022]
- An antidemocratic philosophy called 'neoreaction' is creeping into GOP politics - The Conversation - August 2nd, 2022 [August 2nd, 2022]
- How Stop the Steal Captured the American Right - The New York Times - August 2nd, 2022 [August 2nd, 2022]
- Alt Right: A Primer on the New White Supremacy - June 24th, 2022 [June 24th, 2022]
- Will Tehama Sheriff Candidates Ties to Alt-Right Extremists Alarm ... - June 24th, 2022 [June 24th, 2022]
- Racist Great Replacement Conspiracy Went From Alt-Right to Mainstream - June 24th, 2022 [June 24th, 2022]
- Trump and his mob tried to overthrow American democracy and threaten to try again - Ohio Capital Journal - June 24th, 2022 [June 24th, 2022]
- Pacifism is the wrong response to the war in Ukraine - The Guardian - June 24th, 2022 [June 24th, 2022]
- How Culture Went Back to the Middle Ages - ArtReview - June 24th, 2022 [June 24th, 2022]
- FoxO3 restricts liver regeneration by suppressing the proliferation of hepatocytes | npj Regenerative Medicine - Nature.com - June 24th, 2022 [June 24th, 2022]
- The Alt-Right Has Its Very Own TV Show On Adult Swim - June 11th, 2022 [June 11th, 2022]
- The Nation: "The Libertarian Party Goes Alt-Right" - June 11th, 2022 [June 11th, 2022]
- Milwaukee business owners don't all want the RNC - Wisconsin Examiner - June 11th, 2022 [June 11th, 2022]
- Alt-Right Incels at Deep State Daily Stormer Site Celebrate Buffalo ... - June 3rd, 2022 [June 3rd, 2022]
- Alt Right Journalist Whos Lost Every Lawsuit Over Banned Accounts ... - June 3rd, 2022 [June 3rd, 2022]
- PBS, Lincoln Project Label DeSantis, Press Secretary 'Alt-Right' - June 3rd, 2022 [June 3rd, 2022]
- Johnny Depp-Amber Heard Verdict: The Actual Malice of the Trial - The New York Times - June 3rd, 2022 [June 3rd, 2022]
- How To Keep Meat Juicy With Science : Short Wave - NPR - June 3rd, 2022 [June 3rd, 2022]
- What Do Female Incels Really Want? - The Atlantic - May 17th, 2022 [May 17th, 2022]
- 'Well be here again': How tech companies try and fail to prevent terrorism - Protocol - May 17th, 2022 [May 17th, 2022]
- Republican and more Republican: Idaho shifts ever rightward - The Guardian - May 11th, 2022 [May 11th, 2022]
- Listen up! Here are the finalists of the 2022 Student Podcast Challenge - GBH News - May 11th, 2022 [May 11th, 2022]