Watch the primary challenger to Buffalo's mayor make the most heartwarming call: "Mommy, I won!!"

Originally published at: Watch the primary challenger to Buffalo's mayor make the most heartwarming call: "Mommy, I won!!" | Boing Boing

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Good. The city was long overdue for change.

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When you beat a four-term Democratic mayor as a progressive challenger in a primary race

Not just a progressive, but a self-described socialist promoting New Deal policies.

Speaking with reporters late Tuesday, Walton was asked if she considers herself to be a socialist. Her response: “Oh, absolutely. The entire intent of this campaign is to draw down power and resources to the ground level and into the hands of the people.”

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Buffalo India’s Buffalo Victory Buffaloes Buffalo Mayor (or something like that).

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Yay! Not a political hack who always says what they ought to on camera, but a real person. How will the others cope? The system was not built for that!

Well played, ma’am, well played indeed.

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Congratulations to Miss Watson. May she dodge all the political shenanigans all the naysayers haters and ‘emmerdeurs’ will throw at her. Godspeed.

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An aside: It’s crazy how recognizable Buffalo as a city can be even at street level. Enough that I had to do a double take before I even read the headline.

On topic: Byron Brown on his way out is the end of an era, he’s been mayor for 15 years and it’s time for a change. Before him it was Anthony Masiello for 3 terms and James Griffin for 4 terms. They all did pretty good by the city, but new young leadership is a good thing. (It’s also pretty awesome that Buffalo went from all white male mayors to a black man and now a black woman!)

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It’s amazing that a self-identifying socialist can be elected to office in the United States, but I wonder if this story should be seen as a positive.
I did a bit of extra reading, and it turns out she didn’t win an election for office, she won her party’s primary, but because there are no other candidates she will be the mayor running unopposed.
Unless of course someone steps up to challenge her so the voters get an actual choice. If that doesn’t happen, then 21,400 people have elected the mayor, in a city of 250,000 people.
That doesn’t seem right to me.

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There are hundreds upon hundreds of positions where people run unopposed. Look locally and run for office, if this bothers you so much.

And of course, some fucking fascist will now step in and run against her to “save Buffalo” and will then throw a fucking tantrum when he loses, because that’s the world we live in now… Which is of course, the actual threat to democracy here, not someone running unopposed in fucking Buffalo.

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I would probably get in trouble if I tried to run for office in the US, as I don’t live there.
Where I live we have 5 parties in parliament at the moment (and a couple that will probably make it back at the next election).
None of those parties would let their opposition run unopposed for mayor of a city that size.

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I don’t live in your country, either. We have a different system. Yes, it’s broken as fuck, I’m well fucking aware of that, as is everyone else here who lives in the US. The two party system is a major part of why it’s fucked. WE KNOW, thanks.

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You’ve never been to Chicago, I take it?

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I so rarely get to post this anymore: RTFA!

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When you say it like that, it feels so weird to me that my entire lifetime has only seen three mayors of Buffalo.

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Serious politicians don’t like losing, and donors don’t like donating to losers, and volunteers don’t like volunteering for losers, etc. etc., so the only people who are willing to run in unwinnable races are un-serious politicians, who are generally more of an embarrassment for their party [though that doesn’t seem to be a thing anymore].

And the cries to mommy won’t be nearly as endearing.

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Sounds fair to me.

Of course its a ‘he’…
Unless its an Empty G.
Still a fascist, nevertheless.

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It is unusual, I will grant you that. But if you had to pick an example of what is wrong with democracy today, I would never pick this. She wasn’t chosen by a secret committee of the richest men in return for unknowable kickbacks. She could be opposed, but probably will not be. This may be dull, but unless you are into voting as a sport, this is a good thing. Putting up a less popular candidate so people have to go and vote to shoot them down does not prove anything we want to know. Sometimes the panel of experts does the right thing.

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