India Walton calls her mother on election night to tell her she won the Democratic primary on June 22, 2021.
Robert Kirkham/Buffalo News
Two years ago, on another June primary election night, India Walton was the star of what might have been the best video featuring a Buffalo politician.
On June 22, 2021, Buffalo News photographer Robert Kirkham captured Walton calling his mother and saying, “Mom, I’m the mayor of Buffalo.”
Walton, then a first-time candidate on the far left, had stunned the political world by defeating four-term Mayor Byron W. Brown in a Democratic primary in the heavily Democratic city.
Her supporters that night at the Poize nightclub greeted her with chants of “Madame Mayor, Madam Mayor!”
Walton’s victory was short-lived. Brown ran a successful campaign to win the general election and a fifth term.
Still, Walton’s impact on local politics cannot be denied. This year, she and three other progressive candidates endorsed by the Working Families Party (Matt Dearing, Eve Shippens and Kathryn Franco) are running in the Democratic primary campaigns for four Buffalo Common Council seats.
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Walton is running today in a Democratic primary for the Masten District seat on the Common Council against Zeneta Everhart in what could be described as the best race of the day. Dearing is in a four-way race for the Ellicott district seat. Shippens faces the Council’s longest-serving member, Joseph Golombek, in the North District. And Franco is running in the University District against incumbent Rasheed N. Wyatt.
And this scenario was predicted by Walton two years ago.
“Today is just the beginning,” India Walton told supporters on the eve of the 2021 primary election. “This is about building the infrastructure to challenge every damn seat. I’m talking about commission seats, school board, Council Common”.
Buffalo News Deputy Editor Bruce Andriatch, Erie County reporter Sandra Tan and political reporter Charlie Specht discuss the primary election during a Facebook Live event on June 27, 2023.
Mike McAndrew
6:55 a.m.: Buffalo News reporters discuss the election at the Facebook Live event
Buffalo News deputy editor Bruce Andriatch, political reporter Charlie Specht and Erie County reporter Sandra Tan discussed today’s primary election in a lively Facebook Live event at 6:30 p.m.
Some highlights from the show:
• Specht noted that turnout in Tuesday’s primary is expected to be low because there are “no big ticket races, president or governor” this year and even this year’s Erie County executive race “it hasn’t started yet.”
• Speaking about the Erie County Legislature’s 10th District showdown between Jim Malczewski and Lindsay Bratek-Lorigo, Tan noted that Bratek-Lorigo was married to the politician who held that seat until January, Joe Lorigo, who was elected judge of the Supreme Court of the State. . She had hoped to be nominated to replace him, but Republicans in the Legislature nominated Malczewski.
Bratek-Lorigo and Malczewski are now running for the seat in the Republican and Conservative primaries.
“It’s been a very interesting matchup between someone who is a veteran town board member who has held the seat for the past six months and someone who is younger and is campaigning very vigorously,” Tan said.
The heavyweight battle in Tuesday’s primary election is for the Masten District seat on the Buffalo Common Council between Democrats India Walton and Zeneta Everhart.
“India Walton is back,” Specht said. “Sure, he won the Democratic primary and shocked the political world by beating Mayor Byron Brown in a Democratic primary, but he ultimately lost.
“And he’s running against Zeneta Everhart, one of Sen. Tim Kennedy’s top staffers” and the mother of one of the survivors of the Tops Markets shooting.
Specht noted that the two high-profile black women have combined to raise more than $100,000 in their campaigns, “which, for a Buffalo Council race, is unheard of.”
Specht noted that Everhart works for Kennedy, who may be the best fundraiser of any politician in Western New York, and that may have helped.
Andriatch noted that June used to be a dead time of year for political campaigns when the New York primary was held in September.
But this is no longer the case.
“I Voted” stickers sit on a desk at a voting center at True Bethel Baptist Church on June 27, 2023. (Joshua Bessex/Buffalo News)
Joshua Bessex/Buffalo News
6 pm: 111 candidates in 2 counties
Sixty candidates are running for local public office in the Erie County primary today, and 51 others are running in the Niagara County primary.
The Buffalo News will cover the election live today with more than a dozen reporters, photographers and editors.
Here are the big races that voters will decide:
• Masten’s District seat on the Buffalo Common Council: India Walton, a progressive Democrat who upset Mayor Byron Brown in the 2021 Democratic mayoral primary only to lose in her write-in campaign, against Zeneta Everhart , whose son was injured in the Tops Market mass. shooting, in some Democratic primaries.
• Ellicottt’s district seat on the Buffalo Common Council: Four Democrats – Leah Halton-Pope, Matt Dearing, Cedric Holloway and Emin Egriu – are competing in a Democratic primary.
• Erie County Legislature District 10: Incumbent James Malczewski vs. Lindsay Lorigo, wife of longtime Legislator Joe Lorigo, in both the GOP and conservative primaries.
• Niagara Falls Mayor: Incumbent Robert Restaino against Demetreus Nix and Glenn Choolokian in a Democratic primary.
News reporters will tell you about the winners and losers of races across the region.
At 6:30 p.m., Deputy News Editor Bruce Andriatch will talk with political reporter Charlie Specht and Erie County reporter Sandra Tan about the election in a Facebook Live event. Click to view the three reporters analyze this year’s primary races.
As is often the case with local primary elections, turnout was low at the polls across Erie County on Tuesday, except in Masten’s district, where supporters of Walton and Everhart showed up in large numbers. In the primaries, voters can only vote for the candidates who appear at the polls of the political party to which they are registered.
Follow our coverage here and in the tweets below throughout the night. Polls close at 21:00 Results should be available from 21:30
Check back for more updates overnight.
A Twitter list from TheBuffaloNews
Contact Mike McAndrew at mmcandrew@buffnews.com
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