Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown declares victory over socialist challenger

[Jose Garcia]

Source: CNN

(CNN)Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown declared victory Tuesday night in his write-in campaign for a fifth term. Brown lost the Democratic primary earlier this year to Democratic Socialist India Walton.

As of 12:30 a.m. ET, about 59% of votes had been cast for write-in candidates, and 41% had gone for Walton. Brown's campaign likely accounts for the strong showing for write-in candidates on the ballot, but Erie County won't begin to tabulate the write-in votes until November 17.

That makes it impossible to say definitively who voters wrote in, despite Brown's victory declaration.

After effectively sitting out the nominating contest and refusing to engage with or debate Walton, Brown launched a well-funded general election campaign asking voters -- this time including Independents and Republicans -- to "Write Down Byron Brown."

Read more: https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2021/11/03/politics/buffalo-mayor-byron-brown/index.html

[PoliticAverse]

1. Republicans supported Brown...

GOP Meddles In Buffalo Mayoral Race To Help Incumbent Democratic Mayor
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/republicans-buffalo-mayor-race-byron-brown-india-walton_n_6172edfbe4b03072d6f67573

[NurseJackie]

3. "Meddles" ?? Ha!

Oh, Huffington Post... and

Fact of the matter is that Democrats should welcome and encourage more support from everyone... no matter what their affiliation. I see that there are still people who are angry that "The Lincoln Project" is supporting Democrats and attacking Republicans. Weird.

[George II]

9. So? Why can't citizens of Buffalo support their incumbent DEMOCRATIC Mayor? Obviously Byron Brown...

....is a very popular mayor to all the people in the city. I can't find Buffalo specifically, but Erie County is 47% Democratic, 25% republicanm, and 24% Independent or unaffiliated.

One doesn't get 60% of the votes in an election without support from Democrats, Independents, and republicans.

Inasmuch as he's been elected now five times, clearly he's got broad based support.

I can't see why this is a negative.

[karynnj]

15. Better title - Republicans legitimately voted preferring the incumbent Democratic mayor in the GE

It could be considered meddling by some to vote in the other party's primary - changing party to do so. In Vermont, no one is registered by party. I can opt to take a Democratic, progressive or a Republican primary ballot (only one) In Burlington, the first two are by far the bigger parties.

[onenote]

18. Meddles? Did Colin Powell "meddle" in Obama's race? Did Cindy McCain "meddle" in Biden's

Republicans crossed over to vote for the incumbent Democratic mayor. While I'm sure that sort of think causes Nina Turner to have fainting spells, for the rest of us, getting Democrats elected with whatever support we can is a good thing.

[lapucelle]

21. Apparently so did Democrats and independents. N/T

[NurseJackie]

2. Oh good! This makes me very happy!

I reject Socialism too.

[justhanginon]

4. ......

[comradebillyboy]

5. Yes, many of us do as well.

[oldsoftie]

6. If he won, its a good example of "working together"

[Historic NY]

8. The tag is not what people want to hear.

if they can't run as socialists, don't run as democrats. That message seems clear.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

10. I am on the Justice Dem email feed

I got emails from the Justice Dems, AOC and Cori Bush urging me to contribute to this candidate because she was not a corporate or regular Democrats. I was amused by these pleas and I am glad that Byron Brown won.

Winning as a write in is an amazing feat and Byron Brown should be applauded for his success

[Demguy81]

11. Not from Buffalo, but I have difficulty with this one.

If the roles were reversed, and it was India Walton (or any other left-wing Democrat) running a write-in campaign, people on this site, and the entire Democratic Party would be raving about her being a sore loser and attempting to divide the party.

Walton won the Democratic Party primary. If this is the case, I can handle it, but I will never take "Never run as an independent or third-party candidate" seriously again. If it's good for three, it has to be good for me too.

[PoliticAverse]

12. (cough) Joe Lieberman (cough) n/t

[Demguy81]

13. Indeed.

He lost, but because it was about him, he still wanted to continue. Funny, it was likely his vote that doomed the Medicare buy-in provision in the 2009 - 2010 Healthcare debate. Funny how history works.

[George II]

17. What does Byron Brown's re-election have to do with Joe Lieberman?

PS - you should have that cough checked, flu season is on it's way.

[JustAnotherGen]

26. I don't understand this

Mayor Brown is a die hard life long Democratic Party member.

He was at the million man march -

Lieberman was not.

[Jose Garcia]

14. People would have had a problem if there was a danger of

a Republican being elected.

[brush]

19. Socialism doesn't play in Peoria, Buffalo or America for that matter.

It's too toxic an issue for most areas and only plays in very deep blue districts like AOC's. It's not smart to run as a socialist in most of America even though there are some favorable aspects to it.

It's usually a loser in elections. We've seen that over and over and over. A lot of money and time was wasted when a write-in candidate defeats you.

[Deminpenn]

22. Socialist concepts like medicare and social security

certainly "play well" in America. The military operates on socialist principles, too, as far as welfare and organization are concerned and many Americans worship it.

[brush]

23. Like I said, there are aspects to it that are favorable, but in...

elections it works only rarely, very rarely, in deep blue districts. Recent history has shown that and what happened in Buffalo is just another example.

Who doesn't like medicare/medicaid and Social Security (installed by Dem presidents BTW), not socialist presidents)? Everyone does who has them. But to many Americans...the Greatest generation, Boomers, and much of the GenXers...they were raised fearing socialism, USSR communist collectives, the Iron Curtain, fall out shelters, nuclear war, Red China, and the residual fear still remains with many of those voters. Not all of them, but many who will never vote for a socialist candidate. And then there are all the Latinx voters who have roots in failed socialist countries who are against socialism.

It's just a bad decision. Run as a Democrat and you have a better chance. Most candidates don't enjoy a solid, deep blue district like AOC's.

[Deminpenn]

24. The word "socialist" has a negative connotation

but socialistic programs are popular.

Being a "Boomer", communism and socialism were never problematic to me. To my parents and grandparents, they were, but those generations are mostly gone now.

[brush]

25. Being a boomer myself, I've always been progressive, but I do...

know that being taught in grade to school to hide under our desks in case of Khrushchev sending nukes to rain down upon us still has residual effects on many of our cohorts. Don't fool yourself. Socialism is still toxic to many voters. Buffalo is just the latest example.

The candidate in Buffalo would've been better off running as a Democrat. She was poorly advised to run as a socialist. That was a total misread of constituency. A fucking write-in candidate beat her.

That's unheard of and just shows what a misread of the voters was made.

[lapucelle]

20. Because NY is a closed primary state, most voters did not participate in June.

It looks like the majority of the whole electorate preferred the incumbent mayor. Brown didn't run as a third party candidate. (There was one else on the ballot.) He ran as a write in candidate. His name wasn't on the ballot.

Fewer than 21,000 people voted in the primary, and Walton won by about 1500 votes Many more people turned out to vote in the general.

The race had not been called for Brown: "Write-Ins" is the winner at this point.

=============================================================================




https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/11/02/us/elections/results-buffalo-mayor.html

[George II]

27. The thing is India Walton wasn't a Democrat until shortly before the primary, Byron Brown has been..

...a Democrat for decades.

Byron Brown didn't run as an independent or third-party candidate, he was/is the incumbent Democratic mayor.

In fact, he wasn't even on the ballot.

[Cha]

16. Good on Mayor Byron Brown.. he can't

be smeared with Joe Liebermann's name. Oh they can try.