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CityAndStateNY.com
September 20, 2021
Desperate to hold on to power, Buffalo’s business class has one last shot to stop India Walton.
On the outside looking in By Justin Sondel Portraits by Libby March
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FEW DAYS before the June 22 Buffalo Democratic mayoral primary, a low-grade panic had set in among the wealthy, the connected and the powerful in Buffalo. Larry Quinn, who has spent decades working on development projects for billionaires and sports team owners, posted to Facebook a since-deleted, error-laden missive that warned of the looming danger of a potential victory for India Walton, the Working Families Party-backed candidate and a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, over the city’s forever mayor, Byron Brown. “Thé Buffalo election is being run and funded by the Alexandra Occasio Cortez crowd from Queens with an assist from Phil Rumore the diabolical destroyer of our public education system,” Quinn wrote, referring to the member of Congress and Buffalo Teachers Federation president, respectively. “WAKE UP PEOPLE. VOTE FOR BROWN BEFORE OR ON TUESDAY.” A week before the election Quinn heard rumblings that things were not going well for the mayor, giving him cause to put up the post with the all caps treatment. Brown hadn’t run much of a campaign – despite having a deep war chest and a highly tuned fundraising apparatus. He refused to debate Walton before the primary. He hadn’t even uttered her name in the run up to the election. He held no campaign rallies or events. He went about his business as
Walton defeated the incumbent mayor in the Democratic primary, and thanks to his powerful allies, she’s preparing to face him again.
