The results have been certified. The last 2023 campaign financial reports were due in on December 4th. It's time to close the books on Election 2023.
As things turned out, County Executive Mark Poloncarz was re-elected in a landslide, as pretty much everyone on both sides of the aisle was expecting at the beginning of the year. The 18 percent margin of victory, coming as it did after all of the major events of the past four years, demonstrated that the community appreciated the job he has been doing.
Poloncarz campaign spending totaled approximately $1.15 million. Chrissy Casilio spent $234,292. Add to that the $120,000 of negative TV attacks and related expenses sponsored by a political action committee (Our Town PAC). Final cost: more than $1.5 million.
The overall results throughout the county didn't contain too many surprises. Perhaps the win by Lindsay Lorigo over Jim Malczewski in Erie County's 10th District was a surprise. Malczewski ran a good campaign as the Republicans' endorsed candidate. He was hit by a giant wave of money, including political funds indirectly transferred through the Conservative Party from Lorigo's husband's former legislative campaign account to the tune of $41,000. Lorigo family money also benefited Lindsay. Total spending in the race is estimated at more than $200,000, although an accurate accounting is nearly impossible because of the way the financials were reported.
That is a number that far exceeds any other race ever for a seat on the Legislature that pays $42,588. In the end Lorigo won the Republican primary by just 24 votes. The question now for Mrs. Lorigo is how she works (or doesn't) with the other three members of the Legislature's Republican caucus. That could be a problem. Reports on the streets are that she will maintain her affiliation as a Republican rather than reverting to her former Conservative Party connections.
There were 149 public offices on the ballot in Erie County this year, but as a previous post reported, less than half of that number had Democratic/Republican contests, and even when such elections were on the ballot, most were not really competitive.
Five of the nine seats on Buffalo's Common Council saw incumbent members challenged in Democratic primaries. In the end, all of the incumbents easily won their primaries and their general elections with some minor party challenges (plus one Republican candidate) that were easily turned back. The story about the Council elections is really about the very large amounts of money raised and spent in those races.
More than $600,000 was raised and most of it was spent in those five Council campaigns. The total for the five elections was dominated by the amounts raised by the two women who will be new members of the Council in January, Zeneta Everhart and Leah Halton-Pope. Everhart raised $91,968 and spent $91,102. Leah Halton-Pope collected $100,384 with expenses of $80,606.
The manner in which Michael Chapman, the independent candidate in the Ellicott District, financed his campaign and spent money is not clear. His October 6th campaign filing showed him lending $116,500 to the campaign and spending tens of thousands of dollars with various individuals. His December 4th filing reported an additional $21,292 in spending and a negative balance of $32,584.
The Bills at the bye
Okay, okay, there is a chance that the Buffalo Bills can slip into the NFL playoffs. The operative word is "slip." After more than a year of being listed among the three or four elite teams in the league, the team now instead finds itself in the TV summaries of the playoff picture as "In the Hunt". During that 17-season playoff drought we were happy to even be "in the hunt." Now it almost seems like an insult.
Having lost six games by a total of 26 points leads to a whole lot of "shoulda/coulda/wouldas." In each of those games it is easy to recall just one or two plays that might have turned the game into a victory.
A lot of the burden for how this season is falling out rests with Head Coach Sean McDermott. You have to wonder about team focus and motivation. Botched use of time on the clock, wasted time-outs, and schemes on both sides of the ball go to McDermott's judgment and abilities.
A switch was made in the offensive coordinator's position mid-season. Does it really make a difference?
Sure the team was hurt badly by injuries to key players, but does that explain how the defense in most games has gone soft in the fourth quarter or in overtime?
It is hard to see how the team can do much better than two or three wins out of the last five, which will leave them home watching the playoffs on TV in January and February.
What is really a shame is that while the season has been going downhill quarterback Josh Allen has been playing his heart out, trying to carry the entire team on his back. Set aside the talk about turnovers. Other QBs like Tua Tagovailoa in Miami have similar problems. Patrick Mahomes has had his ups and downs. Joe Burrow is injured – again. Josh's numbers are superstar numbers. Assuming the season does end for the Bills the first weekend in January, the team's management will need to figure out how to right the ship. Those personal seat licenses aren't going to sell themselves.
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