India Walton, who won the Democratic primary for mayor in Buffalo, New York in June, speaks at a rally. (Photo: Friends of India Walton)
Buffalo's Democratic Establishment Still Trying to Defeat Socialist India Walton
"If those in power cannot handle actual democracy they should never have had it," said one critic.
Aug 23, 2021
India Walton, the democratic socialist candidate for mayor in Buffalo, New York who won the Democratic Party primary in June, took aim at four-term incumbent Mayor Byron Brown on Sunday over his attempts--alongside other members of the city's political establishment--to circumvent the will of the voters ahead of November's election.
Without calling the Democratic mayor out by name, Walton assured voters that if she had lost the primary, "I wouldn't be trying to change election laws and work with Republicans to override the will of Buffalonians."
The community organizer and healthcare worker's comments came amid Brown's write-in campaign, which has attracted the support of Republican real estate developer Carl Paladino and other conservatives. Brown filed a petition last week to change the filing deadline in order to run as an independent.
According to a Salon report published Monday, nearly a third of the signatures the mayor has collected in favor of establishing a "Buffalo Party" candidacy are from the right, including from Republicans from outside of Buffalo. The city's Republican Party is considering an official endorsement of Brown, who is a close ally of outgoing Gov. Andrew Cuomo and who's denounced Walton as a "radical socialist."
"I can promise every person in Buffalo that if I lost the primary, I wouldn't be trying to change election laws and work with Republicans to override the will of Buffalonians."
--India Walton
On Friday, Walton said Brown's write-in campaign "is just another attempt by an establishment politician to move right to fight the left."
Meanwhile, should Brown's attempt to defeat Walton electorally fail, the city's legislative body is examining how it might wrest power from the progressive if she wins in November. Weeks after the primary, the nine-member, Democratic-led Buffalo Common Council voted to study how the mayoral position could be dissolved in the city and replaced with a city manager who would "carry out the will of the Council members."
The council has 90 days to study the proposal, which was put forward by council member Rasheed Wyatt--reportedly in response to Brown's governance and a policy disagreement between the two politicians over placing speed cameras in minority neighborhoods.
Walton suggested on Twitter last month that the study, which is set to wrap up just two weeks before the election, is actually an attempt to keep her from running the city with an agenda unabashedly focused on improving the lives of working class and poor Buffalo residents.
"If those in power cannot handle actual democracy they should never have had it," tweeted progressive digital media company Act.tv in response to Salon's report.
Walton, who was a teenage working mother before becoming a nurse and community leader, ran on establishing an unarmed public safety force "to address quality of life;" making Buffalo a sanctuary city; strengthening protections for renters; and expanding food access.
She told reporters after her primary win that she "absolutely" would call herself a socialist and that she aimed to "draw down power and resources to the ground level and to the hands of the people," reminding the local NBC affiliate that millions of Americans have benefited from "socialist" policies in the last 17 months.
"I am a Democrat socialist. The first word in that is Democrat," Walton told WGRZ. "My policies are socialist policies. Many things that we enjoyed during the pandemic like our economic stimulus, like SNAP benefits for families with children, like free healthcare."
Should she win in November, Walton would be the first self-identified socialist mayor of a major American city in 60 years. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) also served as mayor of Burlington, Vermont from 1981 until 1989, describing himself and governing as a democratic socialist.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
India Walton, the democratic socialist candidate for mayor in Buffalo, New York who won the Democratic Party primary in June, took aim at four-term incumbent Mayor Byron Brown on Sunday over his attempts--alongside other members of the city's political establishment--to circumvent the will of the voters ahead of November's election.
Without calling the Democratic mayor out by name, Walton assured voters that if she had lost the primary, "I wouldn't be trying to change election laws and work with Republicans to override the will of Buffalonians."
The community organizer and healthcare worker's comments came amid Brown's write-in campaign, which has attracted the support of Republican real estate developer Carl Paladino and other conservatives. Brown filed a petition last week to change the filing deadline in order to run as an independent.
According to a Salon report published Monday, nearly a third of the signatures the mayor has collected in favor of establishing a "Buffalo Party" candidacy are from the right, including from Republicans from outside of Buffalo. The city's Republican Party is considering an official endorsement of Brown, who is a close ally of outgoing Gov. Andrew Cuomo and who's denounced Walton as a "radical socialist."
"I can promise every person in Buffalo that if I lost the primary, I wouldn't be trying to change election laws and work with Republicans to override the will of Buffalonians."
--India Walton
On Friday, Walton said Brown's write-in campaign "is just another attempt by an establishment politician to move right to fight the left."
Meanwhile, should Brown's attempt to defeat Walton electorally fail, the city's legislative body is examining how it might wrest power from the progressive if she wins in November. Weeks after the primary, the nine-member, Democratic-led Buffalo Common Council voted to study how the mayoral position could be dissolved in the city and replaced with a city manager who would "carry out the will of the Council members."
The council has 90 days to study the proposal, which was put forward by council member Rasheed Wyatt--reportedly in response to Brown's governance and a policy disagreement between the two politicians over placing speed cameras in minority neighborhoods.
Walton suggested on Twitter last month that the study, which is set to wrap up just two weeks before the election, is actually an attempt to keep her from running the city with an agenda unabashedly focused on improving the lives of working class and poor Buffalo residents.
"If those in power cannot handle actual democracy they should never have had it," tweeted progressive digital media company Act.tv in response to Salon's report.
Walton, who was a teenage working mother before becoming a nurse and community leader, ran on establishing an unarmed public safety force "to address quality of life;" making Buffalo a sanctuary city; strengthening protections for renters; and expanding food access.
She told reporters after her primary win that she "absolutely" would call herself a socialist and that she aimed to "draw down power and resources to the ground level and to the hands of the people," reminding the local NBC affiliate that millions of Americans have benefited from "socialist" policies in the last 17 months.
"I am a Democrat socialist. The first word in that is Democrat," Walton told WGRZ. "My policies are socialist policies. Many things that we enjoyed during the pandemic like our economic stimulus, like SNAP benefits for families with children, like free healthcare."
Should she win in November, Walton would be the first self-identified socialist mayor of a major American city in 60 years. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) also served as mayor of Burlington, Vermont from 1981 until 1989, describing himself and governing as a democratic socialist.
India Walton, the democratic socialist candidate for mayor in Buffalo, New York who won the Democratic Party primary in June, took aim at four-term incumbent Mayor Byron Brown on Sunday over his attempts--alongside other members of the city's political establishment--to circumvent the will of the voters ahead of November's election.
Without calling the Democratic mayor out by name, Walton assured voters that if she had lost the primary, "I wouldn't be trying to change election laws and work with Republicans to override the will of Buffalonians."
The community organizer and healthcare worker's comments came amid Brown's write-in campaign, which has attracted the support of Republican real estate developer Carl Paladino and other conservatives. Brown filed a petition last week to change the filing deadline in order to run as an independent.
According to a Salon report published Monday, nearly a third of the signatures the mayor has collected in favor of establishing a "Buffalo Party" candidacy are from the right, including from Republicans from outside of Buffalo. The city's Republican Party is considering an official endorsement of Brown, who is a close ally of outgoing Gov. Andrew Cuomo and who's denounced Walton as a "radical socialist."
"I can promise every person in Buffalo that if I lost the primary, I wouldn't be trying to change election laws and work with Republicans to override the will of Buffalonians."
--India Walton
On Friday, Walton said Brown's write-in campaign "is just another attempt by an establishment politician to move right to fight the left."
Meanwhile, should Brown's attempt to defeat Walton electorally fail, the city's legislative body is examining how it might wrest power from the progressive if she wins in November. Weeks after the primary, the nine-member, Democratic-led Buffalo Common Council voted to study how the mayoral position could be dissolved in the city and replaced with a city manager who would "carry out the will of the Council members."
The council has 90 days to study the proposal, which was put forward by council member Rasheed Wyatt--reportedly in response to Brown's governance and a policy disagreement between the two politicians over placing speed cameras in minority neighborhoods.
Walton suggested on Twitter last month that the study, which is set to wrap up just two weeks before the election, is actually an attempt to keep her from running the city with an agenda unabashedly focused on improving the lives of working class and poor Buffalo residents.
"If those in power cannot handle actual democracy they should never have had it," tweeted progressive digital media company Act.tv in response to Salon's report.
Walton, who was a teenage working mother before becoming a nurse and community leader, ran on establishing an unarmed public safety force "to address quality of life;" making Buffalo a sanctuary city; strengthening protections for renters; and expanding food access.
She told reporters after her primary win that she "absolutely" would call herself a socialist and that she aimed to "draw down power and resources to the ground level and to the hands of the people," reminding the local NBC affiliate that millions of Americans have benefited from "socialist" policies in the last 17 months.
"I am a Democrat socialist. The first word in that is Democrat," Walton told WGRZ. "My policies are socialist policies. Many things that we enjoyed during the pandemic like our economic stimulus, like SNAP benefits for families with children, like free healthcare."
Should she win in November, Walton would be the first self-identified socialist mayor of a major American city in 60 years. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) also served as mayor of Burlington, Vermont from 1981 until 1989, describing himself and governing as a democratic socialist.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.