Why Buffalo Matters in Otsego County

By TED POTRIKUS • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com

After he lost the primary in June to Democratic Socialist India Walton, four-term incumbent Democrat Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown looked like a goner, relegated to the same political “oops” that befell Congressman Joe Crowley when he lost his can’t-lose primary to the completely unknown Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

U.S. Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirstin Gillibrand endorsed Ms. Walton right away, as did the city’s state legislators and a bevy of heavyweight union leaders; Mayor Brown launched a longshot write-in campaign for the November election and hit the trail hard all summer and fall. As Election Day approached, some of the state’s leading left-flank lawmakers — including Ms. Ocasio-Cortez — flew to Buffalo for India Walton rallies. They saw the chance for a Western New York outpost to carry the
hard liberal messages stemming from AOC’s Queens home base.

Governor Kathy Hochul — a proud lifelong Buffalonian — stayed out, and by doing so, spoke volumes. AOC got the message and warned Democrats seeking office in 2022 that if they didn’t support the party’s candidate in the Buffalo mayoral race, they’d have trouble getting the party’s backing for their own contests in the year ahead.

And then Mayor Brown pretty much trounced Ms. Walton on Election Day, sending a big message to the party’s left. Maybe stridence isn’t a winning strategy outside a few neighborhoods in Queens, even if it generates a lot of national attention. All politics is local.

Races on Long Island sent up the same warning flags. Republicans clawed back county executive and district attorney posts lost a few years ago to Democrats, with voters and analysts blaming New York’s new bail reform laws — pushed hard by the state Legislature’s majority Democrats and then-Governor Andrew Cuomo — for the crushing losses. The same happened in the big Capital District town of Colonie, long a Democrat bastion, where the Republicans took the coveted town supervisor
post after a 14-year Democrat incumbent chose to not seek reelection.

These are the races that build the local structures in heavily populated parts of the state that get voters to the polls in gubernatorial or presidential contests. They affect us here in Otsego County.

That Governor Hochul stayed out of the Buffalo fray puts her at odds with her party’s aforementioned and powerful left; she’ll have to hedge her own centrist tendencies against the occasional shouty voices
that pull her otherwise. She’ll be able to push back using Buffalo, Long Island, and Colonie as
illustration. Perhaps she can keep to a relative middle in a primary that finds her already facing popular left-leaning Attorney General Tish James. And farther-left New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, who’s geared up for strong primary challenge. Soon we’ll see term-limitedNew York City Mayor Bill de Blasio entering from stage-even-more-left, running a campaign for governor in which he’ll promise to do for the entire state what he’s done for New York City in the last eight years. Interestingly, Long Island Democratic Congressman Tom Suozzi seems to have had it up to the proverbial ‘here’ with the leftward trend and is mulling a gubernatorial run that he likely would lead from Governor Hochul’s right.

With General James now out of the Attorney General race, expect a similarly crowded Democratic claw to succeed her in a position that, with every election, takes on more political clout throughout New York and the nation. There will be plenty who run from the far left and, perhaps, some who try to stick closer to the center.

Primary elections tend to bring out only the stalwart party faithful or, in their absence, the cleverly-organized blocs that render party-designated nominees like Rep. Ocasio-Cortez and India Walton. Candidates facing primaries in 2022 have a lot of work ahead to craft a message that appeals to more than just the few who might turn out in June 2022. They need to attract a wide swath of voters committed to securing a party identity that can win the general election.

Those messages will drill into Otsego County as voters mull elections still a year away.

Consider the Congressional contest in our swing district that looks to find incumbent Antonio Delgado (D) taking on Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro (R). Albany Times-Union columnist Chris Churchill wrote a few weeks ago that it would be a “choice between decent, thoughtful and talented candidates who disagree on policy but are rarely disagreeable … few districts are so fortunate.”

It will be interesting to watch how the expected Delgado v. Molinaro race is affected by the fireworks to come in the gubernatorial and AG primaries. We’ll be watching and reporting carefully throughout.