In our weekly segment A Closer Look, we feature a story from a BTPM NPR reporter. This week, Assistant Managing Editor Ryan Zunner sits down with reporter Holly Kirkpatrick to discuss the Buffalo Democratic mayoral primary, which was won on Tuesday by State Senator Sean Ryan.
BTPM NPR provided election night coverage from multiple locations.
The original story on Sen. Sean Ryan's mayoral primary win can be found here.
The story from Buffalo Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon's election night campaign headquarters can be found here.
Ryan: Hello and welcome to another segment of A Closer Look here on BTPM NPR, I'm Ryan Zunner, and today we're joined by reporter Holly Kirkpatrick.
Holly: Hi Ryan.
Ryan: And we're talking about State Senator Sean Ryan and the Buffalo mayoral primary. Senator Ryan, who had the Erie County Democratic Party's endorsement, is now the official Democratic nominee for the general election in November. On election night, BTPM NPR had extensive live coverage with multiple reporters providing updates throughout the evening. Holly, you were one of them. What were the takeaways beyond the winners and losers here?
Holly: Well it was really the margin of Ryan's victory. He won with more than 46% of the vote, compared to Buffalo Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon's 35%, and that was in what many thought was going to be a close run race. You know, that's a clear victory. And put in plain numbers, Ryan took just over 12,000 votes to Scanlon's 9,000 or so. That means Ryan beat Scanlon by almost 3,000 votes according to unofficial results from the Erie County Board of Elections.
Ryan: And what does Ryan believe made the difference for his campaign to finish strongly like this?
Holly: In his victory speech, he gave a particular shout out to organized labor, and he spoke with BTPM NPR directly after that speech, and here's how he explained the role unions played in his win.
Ryan [soundbite]: "Buffalo is a city of high union density. So there's thousands of union members living here, and they all came together under the Central Labor Council and reached out and said, 'Sean Ryan's our guy. If you're a union member, we support Sean Ryan.' And boy, did labor come out tonight."
Holly: So we don't yet have a breakdown of voting by Buffalo council district or neighborhood, but remember that in his role as state senator for the 61st district, Ryan already has a foothold in some Buffalo neighborhoods, but not the east side. And Senator April Baskin, she said that she helped introduce Ryan to the voters in that area through going to churches.
Ryan: And though Scanlon lost the Democratic primary, he can technically still run in the general election if he chooses. How does that work, Holly?
Holly: Yeah, so remember, a candidate can run on more than one party line, and Scanlon registered on an independent line that he calls The Good Neighbors Party. Obviously, there's no challenger there, so there's no primary. So if he wants, he could mount a campaign on that independent line for November. But we heard - on election night he was visibly emotional. He was disappointed. He told reporter Jim Fink, he's evaluating his options. And candidates actually only have until Friday to withdraw from the mayoral race, so we should know either way pretty soon.
Ryan: And if you could just give us a quick rundown of how the ballot is going to look for the general election in November.
Holly: Well, right now we've got four candidates. So there's Democratic nominee, Sean Ryan, Scanlon then as an independent candidate if he continues, then independent candidate Michael Gainer and Republican James Gardner. There is a developing situation regarding Garnell Whitfield. He had registered with the Erie County Board of Elections as an independent candidate, which would mean he could go on to the general election, but on Wednesday, the county board of elections blocked that bid, with the board's Commissioner, Jeremy Zellner, telling BTPM NPR that bipartisan staff questioned several details with the campaign signatures. So right now, Whitfield is off the ballot, and there's just those four candidates for the general election, as I mentioned.
Ryan: Definitely a similar wide field that we're seeing in November as we did for this Democratic mayoral primary.
Holly: Absolutely.
Ryan: That's reporter Holly Kirkpatrick. Holly, thanks again for joining us here on A Closer Look.
Holly: Thank you,
Ryan: And this has been A Closer Look here on BTPM NPR. Tune in every Thursday to hear this right here on air and online at btpm.org/news.
