State Senator Sean Ryan formally announced his candidacy for the Buffalo mayoral post to a crowd of supporters and allies in organized labor and community advocacy at Asbury Hall.
It came the Saturday before Thanksgiving and slightly more than two weeks after Ryan was re-elected to his State Senate seat.
Ryan, however, said the timing was deliberate. He is the first what is expected to be a crowded field of candidates seeking the Democratic Party nomination and primary win in next year’s mayoral race.
"This is a big opportunity. The mayor's gone, we have an opportunity to look at the city with a fresh set of eyes," Ryan said at his announcement. "Not be afraid to address the real problems we have, but also we just need to come to terms. We can't fix our streets, we can't fix our potholes. We're failing at the basic level of government."
One of those failures Ryan also argued, was the city's budget shortfall. Some city lawmakers have pegged that impending shortfall at as much as $40 million, and are eyeing shifting revenues like casino payments, cannabis shares, and other income as a way to lessen that gap. Ryan said that issue is not lost on him.
"We got to wait till we see the honest assessment. We have to figure out how much we are in the hole," said Ryan. "But I'll tell you this, there's no easy solutions to this. It's going to take three years to dig ourselves out of this hole that the city had gotten into with over 20 years of bad leadership."
Others are also eyeing the mayor's office. That includes former Buffalo Fire Commissioner Garnell Whitfield, and current Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon. Scanlon took on the duties when Byron Brown stepped down at the end of September to head the Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corporation.
The primary is set for June, with a general election in November of 2025.
