Sometimes election nights can be long and suspenseful. It was not that way last night. Democrats won big in Erie County.
Following up on his big win in the June Democratic primary, State Senator Sean Ryan coasted to a landslide victory in his campaign for mayor of Buffalo. Here are the numbers:
- Ryan (Democrat, Working Families): 29,838 votes; 72 percent of the total turnout
- James Gardner (Republican, Conservative): 9,521 votes; 23 percent
- Michael Gainer (Independent): 1,929 votes; 5 percent
The turnout for the election was 28 percent of the city’s registered voters. That was less than the highly contested race in 2021 when write-in incumbent candidate Byron Brown defeated the Democratic candidate India Walton with a turnout of approximately 40 percent.
Now the hard work of governing becomes the focus. The Mayor-elect will need to staff the leadership of city departments. Buffalo has a myriad of problems including education, housing, infrastructure, youth and senior citizen services, and public safety. Hanging over all those issues is the impending financial crisis. Multi-year deficits run in the tens of millions of dollars and solutions to the problems will be difficult. Significant help from Albany will be unlikely with the state facing its’ own money problems. Cuts coming in federal assistance in such areas as community development and housing will also have a major negative effect on the city.
Erie County offices
County Comptroller Kevin Hardwick was re-elected with a landslide majority:
- Hardwick (incumbent; Democrat, Working Families): 107,002 votes; 59 percent of the total county turnout
- Christine Czarnik (Republican, Conservative): 74,437 votes; 41 percent
For Hardwick this is two elections in a row where the opposition threw negative ads his way. He won by emphasizing the positive.
Erie County Sheriff John Garcia ran unopposed. He received 110,333 votes, which was 71,276 less than the number of votes that were cast countywide in the Comptroller race. Sheriff was the first office listed on the ballot but 71,276 voters passed on voting for Garcia. Another 5,991 votes (5 percent of the total vote for Sheriff) were write-in votes.
All incumbent Erie County legislators were elected.
Two County Court and one Family Court judicial candidates were unopposed for election, as were two candidates for state Supreme Court in the 8th Judicial District, which includes eight counties.
Local offices
Once again all offices in the Town of Tonawanda were won by Democratic candidates under the leadership of Chairman John Crangle.
In the Town of Amherst there were very competitive elections for supervisor, two Council seats, and a Town Justice position. Lead by Supervisor-elect Shawn Lavin the Democrats won all of them
Lavin has served eight years as a member of the Board. Incumbent Brian Kulpa was term limited. New Democratic Town Chairman Chuck Eaton helped steer the party’s victories.
Here are election numbers for supervisor:
- Lavin (Democrat, Working Families): 16,383 votes; 53 percent
- Dan Gagliardo (Republican, Conservative): 14,509 votes; 47 percent
In the Town of Cheektowaga Democrats swept all four Town Board elections. This will restore a Democratic majority on the Town Board where, with Supervisor Brian Nowak, they will hold five of the seven seats.
In the Town of Hamburg’s three-way race for supervisor Republican Beth Farrell Lorentz held a narrow 111 seat lead at the end of the evening. There are likely some absentee votes remaining to be counted. The race will likely see a recount.
The Republican Party’s June primary left Councilmember Farrell Lorentz as the party’s candidate for supervisor but the man she defeated in the primary by 22 votes, Josh Collins, ran a write-in campaign in November
Here are the Hamburg numbers for supervisor:
- Reynolds: 6,854 votes; 42.69 percent
- Farrell Lorentz: 6,965 votes; 43.38 percent
- Write-in (perhaps mostly votes for Collins): 2,238 votes; 13.94 percent
In the rest of Erie County there were dozens of uncontested elections.
Coming attractions
2026 will be a big political year in the state with elections for governor, lt. governor, attorney general, and comptroller as well as all 213 seats in the state Legislature. Besides that the switch to even-numbered election years for most local offices in the state will add dozens of names to the ballot.
First up in 2026 will be a special election for state Senator in the 61st District, the seat that Sean Ryan will vacate as he becomes mayor. Governor Kathy Hochul must call the special election within the first ten days of January. The election will be held near the end of February.
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