Buffalo mayor Byron Brown is a sore loser and a danger to democracy

crimson5pheonix

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File this under "centrists are just republicans with PR". Earlier this year there was a primary for the mayor of Buffalo, New York. As Buffalo is a solid blue city, the primary should basically be the big fight on who becomes mayor. The field quickly came down to four-time incumbent Byron Brown and the DSA backed India Walton. Brown spent the campaign completely disrespectful of Walton and didn't consider her a real threat to his power. She ended up winning the primary, guaranteeing his ousting post-general election.

Brown has gone on to create a new party (the buffalo party) to run as a third-party candidate in the general. Since he missed the filing deadline for the general election by a few months, he's got his judge friend in New York to deem that rule unconstitutional just for Brown so he can relitigate the campaign he blew off. Meanwhile the core democrat party has said very little on this, even dragging their feet in officially endorsing her. Major republican players are backing Brown and will almost certainly be able to count on R votes to beat back the DSA candidate, if you want an idea of what his politics are.

Of course it's not just Brown trying to stop Walton's victory. Soon after she won the primary, the city council has formed a committee to explore getting rid of the mayorship entirely, right as the supposed obstacle the leader is harping on is about to be thrown out of office.
 

Avnger

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Sore loser? Definitely
Danger to Democracy? Laughable hyperbolic nonsense
 

Avnger

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I guess going the Trump route of "I didn't really lose a popular election" is a-okay?
This Mr. Brown character hasn't done that though. By starting a 3rd party and trying to get on the ballot independent of the Democratic nomination, he has implicitly accepted defeat. If he was instead going around claiming to be the "true Democratic party candidate," you'd have a point; he's not though, so you don't.
 
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Kwak

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This Mr. Brown character hasn't done that though. By starting a 3rd party and trying to get on the ballot independent of the Democratic nomination, he has implicitly accepted defeat. If he was instead going around claiming to be the "true Democratic party candidate," you'd have a point; he's not though, so you don't.
I think this is the part of concern...

Since he missed the filing deadline for the general election by a few months, he's got his judge friend in New York to deem that rule unconstitutional just for Brown so he can relitigate the campaign he blew off.
 

Avnger

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I think this is the part of concern...
Which is fucked up if true and hopefully there's anti-corruption statutes that can be thrown at them. Personally, I don't think that rises to "danger to democracy" levels though (beyond how all corruption is dangerous that is).
 

crimson5pheonix

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This Mr. Brown character hasn't done that though. By starting a 3rd party and trying to get on the ballot independent of the Democratic nomination, he has implicitly accepted defeat. If he was instead going around claiming to be the "true Democratic party candidate," you'd have a point; he's not though, so you don't.
If after the result of an election you lost is to have a salty runback, you are implicitly saying you couldn't have actually lost that election, and that running the election again would get a different result, namely the one that matters, that first loss doesn't count.
 

Gergar12

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He has the backing of big real estate in Buffalo New York and the business community with likely the local chamber of commerce backing him.
 
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AnxietyProne

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*SIGH* Why do I always seem to pick political labels that end up shitting the bed like this? I'm going to have to go from centrist to leftist full stop, aren't I? *grumble grumble*
 

tstorm823

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*SIGH* Why do I always seem to pick political labels that end up shitting the bed like this? I'm going to have to go from centrist to leftist full stop, aren't I? *grumble grumble*
If you're trying to pick what you believe by who you don't want to associate with, you're doing it wrong.
 

TheMysteriousGX

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Never thought I'd be agreeing with a tstorm political take, but he's right. On top of that, "centrist" is an inherently malleable position, as it's definition varies wildly based on your systems relative political landscape and who you are choosing as your anchor points.
 
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AnxietyProne

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If you're trying to pick what you believe by who you don't want to associate with, you're doing it wrong.
Sorry tex, but I'm already an enemy of my nation and ANTIFA member just from what I've been doing so far, and as described above, i'm WAY worse than conservatives. Time to find a new way, or eat a bullet.
 

crimson5pheonix

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A bit old, but it slipped on by. A federal judge overturned Brown's friend and he is very officially, too late to change, off the ballot. So he's back to running a write-in campaign.
 
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Eacaraxe

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On top of that, "centrist" is an inherently malleable position, as it's definition varies wildly based on your systems relative political landscape and who you are choosing as your anchor points.
I mean, considering the events of the past four to five years, at this point we should discard the notion of "centrism" being in any way malleable, and default to "absolutely willing to ally with neo-fascists to prevent serving any form of public good or interest, under any circumstance".
 

Avnger

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I mean, considering the events of the past four to five years, at this point we should discard the notion of "centrism" being in any way malleable, and default to "absolutely willing to ally with neo-fascists to prevent serving any form of public good or interest, under any circumstance".
Huh... I don't think the "Bernie or Bust" crowd generally considered themselves centrists, but you're really just supporting Mysterious's point by claiming so.
 

crimson5pheonix

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Huh... I don't think the "Bernie or Bust" crowd generally considered themselves centrists, but you're really just supporting Mysterious's point by claiming so.
Literally the subject of this thread, Byron Brown, is bankrolled by the far right because he serves their interest and they know a republican isn't going to win any general election. Your pithy observation is blind to reality.
 
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crimson5pheonix

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NYS democratic chair compares India Walton to David Duke for why he won't endorse her, despite winning the nomination.
 
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