Candidates running in party primary elections next week were required to file their last pre-primary campaign financial reports with the state Board of Elections on June 16. The primary election will be held on June 27.
I’ll get to the Buffalo Common Council candidates’ filed reports below, but first some reporting and observations about what is going on in the Republican and Conservative primaries for the 10th District seat on the Erie County Legislature. The battle between the leadership of both parties is making this perhaps the toughest primary campaign in 2023.
The two candidates in that race are the appointed incumbent James Malczewski and Lindsay Lorigo. Malczewski was a registered Republican who re-affiliated as a Conservative in order to run in the latter party’s primary. Lorigo was a registered Conservative who re-affiliated as a Republican in order to run in the latter party’s primary.
With the June 16th financial reports included, here is the total in contributions and spending thus far this year:
- Malczewski has raised $49,961 and spent $23,630. His account had a balance as of June 12 of $30,303.
- Lorigo has raised $18,344 and spent $9,980. Her account had a balance as of June 12 of $8,364.
Lorigo has been flooding the district with mailers but the cost of those pieces and the funds to pay for them remain officially unidentified. Since the cutoff for information filed with the state BOE was June 12, it is likely that there will be substantial additional donations and expenditures for both of these campaigns before it is all over. Beginning June 13, any donations of $1,000 or more must be reported to the state BOE within 24 hours of receipt.
In the election for the State Supreme Court this past November one of the winning candidates, Joseph Lorigo, received a loan from his father, Conservative Party Chairman Ralph Lorigo, of $74,000. That loan converted to a donation after the election. The County Conservative Party received a transfer of $41,402 from Joseph Lorigo’s closed out campaign account in February. On May 23 the Erie County Conservative Party transferred $50,000 to the state Conservative Party.
In late May and early June, the Erie County Republican Committee transferred $13,750 to the state Republican Committee, likely for Malczewski mailings.
Family contribution limits are much lower in a county legislative race than in a campaign for the Supreme Court. There are limits on the amount of money that a family can provide to a candidate for office. For a legislative seat the limit is the “total number of enrolled voters in the candidate’s party in the district, excluding voters in inactive status, multiplied by $0.25, but at least $1,250, and no more than $100,000.”
The problem is that to determine if there might be violation of the law you would need to know how many registered Republican and Conservative voters there are in the 10th District. The county BOE has traditionally and routinely published such information on their website. They have not done so for more than a year.
Word-on-the-street is that the apportionment information is not available because Republican Commissioner Ralph Mohr is still concerned about the February 2023 Federal Court decision in a suit he filed asking the Court to draw new lines for the legislative districts. The suit, according to the Court’s decision, was filed “[j]ust a few days before candidates could begin circulating designating petitions for party primaries” even though Mohr knew for many weeks or months “that this issue was on the horizon, but he chose not to seek the Court’s intervention until the petition period was about to begin.” Judge Lawrence Vilardo found that Mohr had no standing for his suit.
I have sent a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request to the Board on June 14 requesting the missing apportionment information. To date I have not received a reply.
A seat on the Erie County Legislature pays $42,588 annually for two years. The primaries in the 10th Legislative District will not impact the organization of the Legislature. When all is said and done the primaries in the 10th District will cost more than $150,000, far exceeding other campaigns for the Legislature. To paraphrase the Barnes Firm’s TV slogan, “how much is that legislative seat really worth?” Unfortunately we will not have the complete answer to that question until next month, after the election.
If Malczewski and Lorigo each win one of the 10th District primaries, the fun could continue right through November.
The Buffalo Common Council races
There are five contested Democratic primaries for seats on the Buffalo Common Council this year. In some cases candidates had funds available in January 2023 from previous activity. Here are the summaries of money raised and spent in 2023 as well as the amount they had remaining as of June 12:
- Buffalo, Ellicott District Councilmember. Matt Dearing; raised $14,025; spent $10,188; has $3,836 remaining. Leah Halton-Pope: raised $65,734; spent $22,418; balance $43,316. Cedric Holloway: raised $9,370; spent $1,946; balance $3,836. Emin Eddie Egriu had did not a financial report on file as of June 19. There were 3,895 votes cast in the 2021 Democratic mayoral primary in Ellicott.
- Buffalo, Lovejoy District Councilmember. Incumbent Bryan Bollman: raised $17,031; spent $7,151; balance $20,693. Mohammed Uddin: raised $25,897; spent $22,960; balance $2,937. There were 1,402 votes cast in the 2021 Democratic mayoral primary in Lovejoy.
- Buffalo, Masten District Councilmember. Zeneta Everhart: raised $71,938; spent $58,641; balance $13,297. India Walton: raised $31,316; spent $18,701; balance $15,401. There were 3,374 votes cast in the 2021 Democratic mayoral primary in Masten.
- Buffalo, North District Councilmember. Incumbent Joe Golombek: raised $27,561; spent $40,763; balance $37,711. Eve Shippens: raised $20,708; spent $22,070; balance $6,031. There were 1,301 votes cast in the 2021 Democratic mayoral primary in North.
- Buffalo, University District Councilmember. Incumbent Rasheed Wyatt: raised $8,050; spent $15,648; balance $8,748. Kathryn Franco: raised $17,777; spent $12,104; balance $6,191. There were 2,613 votes cast in the 2021 Democratic mayoral primary in University.
Contributions and spending to date in the Masten and Ellicott Districts exceed normal spending in races for the Buffalo Common Council. Significant sums have been raised for their campaigns by Ms. Halton-Pope and Ms. Everhart from out-of-Western New York donors. Both of them hold jobs with the State Legislature. Questions have been raised about whether they intend to continue that employment in some form if they are elected to the Council. The salary of a member of the Buffalo Common Councilmember will increase to $84,472 on January first.
Early voting
Early voting continues through Sunday, June 25th. Here is a link to the sites and times for Erie County (https://www.elections.erie.gov/pdfs/EARLYVOTING%202023Primary.pdf) and Niagara County (https://elections.niagara.ny.us/app/uploads/2023/04/early-voting-pe23.pdf).
Publication note
With the primary elections occurring on Tuesday, June 27, the next Politics and Other Stuff article will publish on Wednesday, June 28.
Twitter @kenkruly
