Buffalo, NY - The Comeback Kid

[StateBoiler]

The Brown campaign has also recently purchased thousands of stamps, with the Mayor's name on them, for voters. Walton campaign expresses concern over questionable legality.

https://www.wgrz.com/article/news/local/mayor-browns-campaign-orders-large-amount-of-stamps-for-election-day/71-87bc795b-3d53-4660-9276-e263e7c8b658

Always amuses me that Democrats and Republicans always stand for these ridiculous ballot access measures because it benefits them, then one of their own are forced to do it.

When Ballot Access News reported this, I remarked it was a good idea and can be used by other write-in candidates in the future. So I imagine Mr. Brown will use the stamps to win in November and then a Democrat or Republican-appointed judge will in the future ban their use when a third-party candidate or independent attempts it.

[StateBoiler]

Here's Jay Jacobs comparing India Walton to David Duke.

https://twitter.com/morganfmckay/status/1450163231591473154

Note that he "retracted" - read youtuber fake-apology 'sorry you were offended' - it after pressure from other NY Democrats.

His better analogy would've been if a LaRouche candidate won, since that happened once in a Democratic statewide primary. Problem is KKK is more easily identifiable to the average person in a newspaper story than LaRouchies.

[StateBoiler]

http://ballot-access.org/2021/10/27/write-in-candidate-byron-brown-leading-in-race-for-buffalo-new-york-mayor/

Buffalo holds a mayoral election on November 2, 2021. Write-in candidate Byron Brown (the incumbent) has a strong lead, even though he is not on the ballot. The poll forced respondents to volunteer the name of Byron Brown if they intend to vote for him; the only candidate named in the poll was the Democratic nominee, India Walton. See this story.

The Board of Elections will be forced to do a great deal of extra work to canvass so many write-in votes. The Board would have been better off if it had not appealed the decision of the U.S. District Court, putting Brown on the November ballot as an independent candidate. The issue was the early petition deadline. The U.S. District Court followed precedent and ruled the early deadline unconstitutional, but then the Second Circuit stayed that order, without writing any text of its own. The deadline was in May, although before 2019 it had always been in October, September or August.

[StateBoiler]

This guy is a ing Republican

Yes. A black man that was elected mayor of a large northeastern city in New York State 4 consecutive times as well as winning the Democratic Party primary 4 consecutive times is a Republican.

Any more intelligent insight you wish to add?

[StateBoiler]

I hope New York passes a sore loser law to prevent this kind of nonsense in the future. You shouldn’t be allowed to run if you loose a major primary (progressive, conservative, moderate, liberal or whatever).

From the October Ballot Access News writing about the flawed court ruling keeping Brown off the ballot due to an independent candidate deadline that was previously held by the U.S. Supreme Court to be unconstitutional in Anderson v. Celebreeze:

http://ballot-access.org/2021/10/29/october-2021-ballot-access-news-print-edition/

New York has a long tradition of accepting sore losers. In the 35 years I have been watching election law bills in the New York legislature, I don’t recall seeing a single bill ever introduced that proposed to outlaw "sore losers". Here is a partial list of prominent political figures who have been "sore losers" in New York:

1. John V. Lindsay lost the Republican primary for Mayor of New York city in 1969. But he then got on the general election ballot as the nominee of his own "Independent Party" and he also was the nominee of the Liberal Party. He won the general election.

2. Mario Cuomo lost the Democratic primary for Mayor of New York city in 1977. But then he got on the general election ballot as the Liberal Party nominee, and polled 45% in the general election.

3. Jacob Javits lost the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in 1980, but he appeared on the general election ballot as the nominee of the Liberal Party. He polled 11%.

4. Andrew Cuomo lost the Democratic primary for Governor in 2002, but he appeared on the November ballot anyway as the nominee of the Liberal Party, although he did not campaign.

5. New York city councilmember Sal Albanese lost the 2017 Democratic primary for Mayor of New York city, but he got on the general election ballot anyway as the Reform Party nominee.

I really hope Brown is blacklisted from the party (as I would have AOC if she had lost in her initial primary and kept running)

Why do you think that's going to happen? Our politics are not based on the exercise of principle, they're based on the exercise of power. Why would state Democrats want to turn their hold on Buffalo city government into Syracuse, a city where they should have a Democratic mayor but don't? (independent-held mayor seat, likewise up for reelection tomorrow) What's going on is the people that support a Brown government probably know they lose power if Walton is the winner. In other words, the Democratic Party of the City of Buffalo are in effect 2 separate parties in this election.

[StateBoiler]

As far as the why the decision was flawed, again from the same BAN link:

On August 30, the Mayor of Buffalo, New York, Byron Brown, filed a lawsuit in state court against the May petition deadline for independent candidate petitions. On the same day, some voters who want to vote for him filed a lawsuit in federal court, also against the May petition deadline.

The Mayor had lost the Democratic primary for re-election in June 2021, so he had then circulated a petition to get on the ballot as an independent candidate, using the slogan "Buffalo Party." But his petition was rejected because the petition deadline for independents, ever since 2019, has been in May (before 2019, it was in August).

New York has no "sore loser" law, and there have been many politicians in New York who lost a major party primary but then ran in the general election anyway, as the nominee of a minor party, or as an independent.

The Mayor’s petition had enough valid signatures, but it was rejected because it was filed too late. The basis for his lawsuit is that almost universally, courts have held that independent candidate petition deadlines can’t be earlier than primary day. Yet New York’s petition deadline is 28 days before the primary. The most important precedent that early petition deadlines are unconstitutional is Anderson v Celebrezze, 460 U.S. 780 (1983). In that case, the U.S. Supreme Court said that the March petition deadline for independent presidential candidates in Ohio was unconstitutional.

The state of Ohio vigorously argued that the deadline should be upheld, because that deadline blocks "sore losers".

But the U.S. Supreme Court said that even though John Anderson was a "sore loser", states cannot stop "sore losers" by making the independent deadline early. If states want to stop "sore losers", they can do that directly. But they can’t do it indirectly, by tinkering with petition deadlines. An early petition deadline injures independent candidates who are not sore losers.

Based on the Anderson precedent, and over 50 other precedents in lower courts, Mayor Brown should have won his cases. He did win them both in the first round. In federal court and state court alike, he won on September 7.

But on September 16, the state Appellate Division reversed the lower state court, and upheld the constitutionality of the May petition deadline.

The Appellate decision had held the oral argument earlier that day. At the oral argument, one of the four justices, Stephen K. Lindley, said vociferously that Brown should lose because he is a "sore loser". Justice Lindley said that Anderson was not a "sore loser". The attorney for the Mayor then responded, "He certainly was!" Anderson had run in twenty Republican presidential primaries in 1980 and had lost them all. That is why, on April 24, 1980, he bowed out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination and instead said he would be an independent candidate.

When the decision came out a few hours later, it said that the May deadline is constitutional because the state must send out overseas absentee ballots 45 days before the general election, and therefore the May petition deadline is needed so the ballot can be finalized.

No one can believe such a statement. The deadline for mailing out overseas absentee ballots this year is September 17, and it is absurd to argue that therefore the independent petition deadline must be in May. The decision also said the state has an interest in "ensuring the integrity and reliability of the electoral process" and "promoting political stability." These are just code words for blocking sore losers.

...

The Appellate decision says Mayor Brown is "far from the archetypal ‘independent candidate’ whose interests Anderson and its progeny seek to protect. Petitioner has been in elective office for the last 25 years, has served four terms as Mayor of Buffalo, and first chose to participate in the Democratic primary election in lieu of filing a timely independent nominating petition."

John Anderson, when he declared as an independent candidate, had served ten terms in Congress, was currently in Congress, listed himself all during 1980 as a "Republican" in the Congressional Directory, and had been chair of the House Republican Conference 1969-1979. There is no difference between Mayor Brown and John Anderson.

...

The Appellate Division opinion says that most decisions striking down early deadlines "have done so in the context of their impact on federal elections", but cited no authority. The statement is false. Among the 53 court decisions that have struck down or enjoined early petition deadlines, 31 of them involved state or local office (including minor party lawsuits that involved both federal and state office). See the list in the March 1, 2019 issue of Ballot Access News.

The Appellate Division opinion cited precedents that supposedly supported early deadlines, but most of the cited cases involved independent petition deadlines that were simultaneous with the primary. That is true for the Swanson, Lawrence, Wood, and Council of Alternative Parties cases. The decision also cited a 2001 decision of the Arizona Supreme Court upholding the June deadline, but the Appellate Division did not say that the same Arizona petition deadline was invalidated in 2008 by the Ninth Circuit, in a case filed by Ralph Nader. The only decision cited by the Appellate Division that upheld a petition deadline as much as a month before the primary is a decision of the Vermont Supreme Court, but even there, the legislature then moved the deadline from June to August so that it was simultaneous with the primary.

[StateBoiler]

After 2 months, we finally have a substantive counterargument for the court's original decisions besides "it owns the Bros".

BAN publishes monthly and each month's newsletter is posted for non-subscribers a month after the fact.

[StateBoiler]

This guy is a ing Republican

Yes. A black man that was elected mayor of a large northeastern city in New York State 4 consecutive times as well as winning the Democratic Party primary 4 consecutive times is a Republican.

Any more intelligent insight you wish to add?

You act like black politicians aren’t some of the most moderate/conservative ones in the Democratic Party. We regularly win 90% or more of black votes, it’s not like they’re all liberal…

So are you saying black politicians are not welcome in the Democratic Party unless they're liberal, or are you saying he should be disqualified from running in the primary, or are you calling most black politicians DINOs? Or to frame it in terms for the ignorant: how can a guy in a Democratic-majority city that's "A REPUBLICAN" win the Democratic primary 4 consecutive times?