Who is behind some of the mass text messages in Buffalo's mayoral primary race?

Many voters in Buffalo received unsolicited text messages this week going after Buffalo mayoral candidate Sean Ryan.

One message sent Tuesday urges voters to “Say NO to Sean Ryan” and states he takes “tens of thousands from NYC donors.”

Another message sent Wednesday calls Ryan “an insider doing the bidding of his New York City friends and sponsors,” and adds “we may never know who’s calling the shots.”

But who’s “calling the shots” behind the messages?

Both texts end with a sign-off stating they were paid for by an independent expenditure committee called Common Sense for the City of Buffalo, and “not expressly authorized or requested by any candidate or by any candidate’s political committees or any of its agents.”

That’s because independent expenditure committees, known as IE committees, must act separately from any political campaign, candidate or political party according to the Federal Election Commission. Communications funded by these types of committees must “expressly advocate the election or defeat of a clearly identified candidate.”

In the case of Common Sense for the City of Buffalo, the committee was registered with the New York State Board of Elections on June 2 and expressly lists that it is working in opposition to Ryan’s bid for mayor.

Two individuals are listed as associates of the committee: Daniel C. McGinn, a lawyer based in Albany, NY, and Richard Horner, a consultant whose address is listed as Bluffton, SC.

McGinn used to work as Assistant Albany County Attorney and is now a sole practitioner, according to his account on LinkedIn. A Facebook page shows he ran for Family Court Judge in Albany as a Democrat in 2019.

Horner is the former Political Director of the New York State Democratic Committee who has managed campaigns for several high-profile Democrats in the Buffalo area, including Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz’s 2005 run for county comptroller. He now runs Nexus Point Strategies, a political consulting firm registered to a Main Street address in Buffalo.

BTPM NPR left a voicemail for McGinn and Horner returned that call late Thursday afternoon.

So, is Horner the person behind the committee?

Yes and no.

He told BTPM NPR he is responsible for the political strategy and language used in the text messages, but not for raising the money funding the communications against Ryan.

That, he said, is down to “a group of people in the city of Buffalo that have deep pockets that wanted to add on to what was happening in the Chris Scanlon campaign.”

Under New York State election law, IE committees are a legal way to provide extra support or opposition to a candidate for political office.

But as of Friday afternoon, that list of donors is not publicly available on the New York State Board of Elections website. New York State Election law requires IE committees to submit weekly reports when a single contribution/loan of $1,000 or more is received or a single expenditure exceeding $5,000 is made.

Horner put that down to a “problem” at the board of elections, and said the committee had indeed filed the required documents and had been trying to resolve the issue “for the past 48 hours.”

“I do know everything was filed on time, but there was a problem at the board, on the board's end, and [we] were issued a ticket to prove that we were doing everything legally,” Horner said.

The New York State Board of Elections confirmed Horner's account in an email sent through a spokesperson Friday, and said the committee had entered transactions for a weekly/24-hour report with the board, but the submission "has been unsuccessful" due to technical issues being investigated by a web developer.

NYS Board of Elections

The donors

Though the list of donors does not appear on the state board of elections website as of Friday afternoon, Horner shared a picture of the list of "pending" transactions with BTPM NPR.

That picture shows five donors have contributed a total of $50,000 to the IE committee opposing Ryan, as follows:

Developer and real estate investor, Kevin Helfer, has donated the most with a total of $33,000. Helfer served as the City of Buffalo's parking commissioner and retired in 2022. He also ran as the Republican candidate for Buffalo mayor against Byron Brown in 2005.

Buffalo-based developers Sinatra Development Co LLC are led by Nick Sinatra, former employee of the George W. Bush White House, and well-known Republican Party donor.

5277 Group LLC is registered to 295 Main Street, Suite 700, in Buffalo, which is the address of Ellicott Development. President and CEO, William Paladino, is someone Scanlon describes as a "friend." Paladino and his family-affiliated companies have donated approximately $19,000 to Scanlon's campaign committee in the run up to the mayoral primary.

Is the committee operated from outside of Buffalo?

Despite being called Common Sense for the City of Buffalo, the only two individuals publicly associated with running the committee – McGinn and Horner - are based elsewhere.

Although Horner is now situated in South Carolina, he told BTPM NPR he was raised in South Buffalo and lived in the city for 42 years. His business, Nexus Point Strategies, is still registered downtown.

And even though the committee is officially registered in opposition to Ryan, he told BTPM NPR those funding it support South Buffalo native, Scanlon.

“I know Buffalo better than almost any political consultant. People want to hire me to help someone that grew up in the same neighborhood I did. Why wouldn't I take that job?” Horner said.

Asked if he knows Scanlon personally, he replied: “Other than to say hi to him? No, not really.”

He told BTPM NPR he had never worked for or been paid by Scanlon, in accordance with state law.

In an email, the Scanlon campaign said: “Mayor Scanlon and members of his campaign have zero knowledge about the Common Sense for the City of Buffalo committee, and there is no connection between the Scanlon campaign and this committee.”

Reactions to text messages and IE committee

BTPM NPR spoke to Ryan before receiving the picture from Horner detailing the donors and amount of money raised by the IE committee.

The lack of publicly available information detailing the individuals funding the committee is fueling speculation in Ryan’s campaign.

“A lot of the Republican Scanlon supporters have been putting dark money together,” Ryan said. “And dark money is money, you know, that's not immediately traceable, that super wealthy people try to use to influence elections.

“I would say to this campaign, step into the light. Let people see who you are, file your filings with the board of elections, so we can see what money is coming in and where it's coming from.”

He suspects the donors will not appear on the New York State Board of Elections website before the Democratic primary mayoral election on June 24.

Referencing lawyer McGinn, Ryan added it is “ironic” that a committee called Common Sense for the City of Buffalo is associated with at least one “operative” based in Albany.

But Horner hit back: “It's not dark money. It's completely above board, and if [Sean Ryan] doesn't like the way the independent expenditure committees are run, he was in the legislature for over a decade in both houses. He could have changed the law.”

He also attacked Ryan’s fundraising activities.

“I think the [independent expenditure] committee has raised less money than Sean Ryan has raised from downstate interests. At least this money's from Buffalo,” he said.

In response to Ryan’s claim that Republican supporters of Scanlon are getting “dark money” together, the Scanlon campaign said: “Once again, Sean Ryan is lying. His complete hypocrisy is on full display, as he has blatantly laundered campaign contributions through four committees in order to evade the contribution limits on individuals and organizations. In this fundraising cycle, he has accepted and spent more than $450,000 in contributions that were in excess of the $5,144 limit on Democratic Primary contributions for Buffalo Mayor. These include: $38,800 from RPAC, $27,000 from LAWPAC and $18,500 from David Rogers of Swormsville. In just the last 10 days, Sean Ryan has received more than $40,000 in contributions from Albany, New York City, Florida, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. The Scanlon campaign plays by the rules and this election will demonstrate that who actually supports you does matter, and that the City of Buffalo is not for sale.”

The Scanlon campaign has requested an opinion from the state board of elections on this matter. According to state board of elections Director of Public Information, Kathleen McGrath, transfers between campaign committees authorized by and solely supporting the same candidate, known as a type two transfer, are permitted under state election law.

Why do people create IE committees?

IE committees do not follow the same individual donation limits compared to campaign committees directly linked to a specific candidate. That makes them an attractive option for big spenders who want to help support or oppose a candidate for political office, according to Laurie Buonanno, a political analyst and professor specializing in New York State politics at Buffalo State.

“They are committees that are permitted to raise and spend unlimited funds, so long as they're not coordinated with a campaign or a political party,” she said.

She added that for some donors, it is preferable to be associated with a cause or an idea rather than the name of a candidate.

“So if it's Common Sense for the City of Buffalo, that's a lot more, I don't know, attractive, I think, than just someone's name. They're telegraphing something: common sense.”

She said that many Super PACs and IE committees containing the wording “common sense,” are usually the work of Republicans or moderate Democrats with a fiscally conservative outlook.

“This would make perfect sense in a city in which Republicans really can't win, because it would be very unusual, because they're so out-registered in the city of Buffalo,” she said. “They would rather have a Republican as mayor, but they'll take the next best thing. They'll take a fiscally conservative, traditional Western New York Democrat, because that's what I would say Scanlon is.”