In the aftermath of Brown’s apparent write-in victory, questions surround whether Buffalo was ever ready to follow the progressive path India Walton’s primary victory seemed to have charted.
“That’s significant because people were petrified of her radical politics,” he said, noting her plan to cut Police Department funding by $7.5 million collided with concern about crime. “That was overwhelmingly rejected.”
Still, Masiello acknowledged that just as throughout its history, Buffalo’s voters and its politics constantly change. Immigrants bring new ideas, ethnic voting patterns evolve, and different issues dominate the discourse. Walton’s 41% stands as a basis to build on, he said, but not with a candidate like Walton.
“I believe that if there were a less radical, progressive candidate, the campaign would have been a lot closer,” the former mayor said.
“Buffalo has changed and will change several times again. All of us are going to have to adjust to those things,” he added, “but we won’t adjust to such radical positions overnight.”
South Council Member Christopher P. Scanlon, an early Brown supporter who fiercely opposed Walton’s socialist philosophy, emerged as a potent force in the Brown victory as he helped mobilize voters in the city’s most moderate district. He said he never believed the 11,000 voters who selected Walton in the June Democratic primary reflected “a moderate city with a moderate platform.”
“There are liberal Democrats, for sure,” he said, “but India Walton was even to the left of them, and that’s how she painted herself.”
