Things start to take shape for the 2019 local elections with a review of the campaign committee financial reports required of all committees, due at the State Board of Elections. The most relevant of the reports are for elected officials or candidates who will be running for office in 2019, so this is a brief report on those people.

The reports reflect transactions through January 11^th and were required to be filed by January 15^th. Here is a summary of some of the major candidates’ committees:

• County Executive Mark Poloncarz has $445,074 in the bank already for his upcoming re-election campaign.
• One prominent potential Republican challenger to Poloncarz, State Senator Chris Jacobs, has $345,746 in his campaign treasury. Senator Jacobs has substantially self-funded his previous campaigns and would likely do so again if he decides for run County Executive.
• Another potential CE challenger, County Legislator Ed Rath, has $46,085 in his accounts.
• As for the rumored CE candidacy of Laurie Lisowski Frey, she so far does not have a campaign account created.
• Here are the current campaign committee balances of the incumbent Erie County Legislators. All eleven seats will be on the ballot in November, although only three or four of them may face serious competition. Here are the incumbents:
• • 1^st District – Barbara Miller-Williams – $1,449
• • 2^nd District – April Baskin — $9,080
• • 3^rd District – Peter Savage — $34,946
• • 4^th District – Kevin Hardwick — $30,155
• • 5^th District – Thomas Loughran — $3,976
• • 6^th District – Edward Rath — $46,085
• • 7^th District – Timothy Meyers – $1,013
• • 8^th District – John Bruso — $3,980
• • 9^th District – Lynne Dixon — $17,797
• • 10^th District – Joseph Lorigo – No report on file as of January 17
• • 11^th District – John Mills — $7,461
• All nine Buffalo Common Council seats will be on the ballot. Here’s how the incumbents’ campaign accounts stack up:
• • Delaware – Joel Feroleto — $43,075
• • Ellicott – Darius Pridgen — $41,457
• • Fillmore – David Franczyk — $3,160
• • Lovejoy – Richard Fontana — $6,370
• • Masten – Ulysees Wingo – No report filed since January 2018
• • Niagara –David Rivera – No report on file as of January 17
• • North – Joseph Golombek — $35,320
• • South – Christopher Scanlon — $46,494
• • University – Rasheed Wyatt – No report filed since January 2018
• There will be a race for Buffalo City Comptroller to replace the departing Mark Schroeder. Potential candidates have yet to come forward.
• There will be several State Supreme Court seats on the ballot in November, but the shape of those races will take some time to develop.
• This is the year when all at-large and district representatives on the Buffalo School Board will be on the ballot. There are always lots of issues to occupy those campaign agendas. The School Board elections are in May.

Brown departs state Democratic chairmanship without explanation

Last Monday the New York Daily News reported that Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown had been replaced as New York State Democratic Chairman by Nassau County Democratic Chairman Jay Jacobs. Jacobs had a previous stint as state chair when Governor David Paterson was in office.

Governor Andrew Cuomo gave Brown the traditional pat on the back for his service to the party when he announced Brown’s departure and his replacement by Jacobs. Mayor Brown’s office, strangely, offered no explanation for what is going on or why the change is occurring now. Normally state party committees elect their leadership in September.

The Mayor reportedly was not in attendance at the Governor’s State of the State/2019 Budget presentation in Albany this week, an event Brown has regularly attended.

The Democratic Party State Chairmanship has for many years been primarily a figurehead position, with the real power held by the Committee staff, taking their direction from the governor’s office. The Cuomo announcement about the switch in chairs reaffirms that management arrangement.

There has been nothing publically revealed about why Brown is out, so one can only speculate: an impending appointment to some state position for Brown? A negative issue that has the governor looking to distance himself from Brown? Brown wanting to spend more time attending to the City of Buffalo’s fiscal crisis? Inquiring minds want to know.