{"id":19429,"date":"2021-07-20T12:02:19","date_gmt":"2021-07-20T19:02:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=19429"},"modified":"2021-07-20T12:02:21","modified_gmt":"2021-07-20T19:02:21","slug":"an-empire-state-uprising","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2021\/07\/20\/an-empire-state-uprising\/","title":{"rendered":"An Empire State Uprising"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

JUL 19, 2021\u00a0\u00a0SAM MELLINS<\/a> (dailyposter.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Progressives win primaries in western New York, intensifying their challenge to the Democratic machine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"An
India Walton (Photo credit: Nate Peraccini)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This story is being co-published with <\/em>New York Focus<\/a>, an independent news outlet covering New York politics.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last month, as Democratic voters in New York City puzzled pundits by nominating the moderate Eric Adams for mayor while simultaneously voting in what will likely be a historically progressive City Council, comptroller and public advocate<\/a>, upstate Democrats went to the polls, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the state\u2019s second and third largest cities, Buffalo and Rochester, voters delivered results that could reshape both cities\u2019 politics. In Rochester, progressive wins at the city and county levels signaled a possible new direction for the Democratic party. In Buffalo, India Walton\u2019s shocking upset victory \u2014 despite the incumbent mayor\u2019s announcement that he will run a write-in campaign in the general election \u2014 could bend a moderate Democratic city towards her socialist vision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The victories further a leftward trend in Western New York that was also seen<\/a> in the area\u2019s most recent state legislative elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI can go down [interstate highway] 90 and pick up progressive legislators now, when a few years back, my car would have been empty,\u201d said Rosemary Rivera, co-executive director of the grassroots organizing group Citizen Action of New York and a Rochester resident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCompletely Demolished\u201d<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

On June 22, Rochester, New York\u2019s third-largest and poorest<\/a> city, along with the surrounding Monroe County, experienced a political earthquake. At the top of the ticket, incumbent Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren suffered a landslide loss<\/a> to challenger Malik Evans. While progressives were somewhat lukewarm on Evans, some saw Warren\u2019s ouster as a vote of no confidence in her response to police misconduct<\/a> that has plagued Rochester over the past year, including an alleged cover-up<\/a> surrounding the death of Daniel Prude at the hands of the Rochester police department last March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPolicy-wise I don\u2019t see much difference in their platforms, but in terms of wanting her to be removed as a form of accountability to the Prude family, we see that as a win,\u201d said Stanley Martin, who secured the Democratic nomination for one of the Rochester city council\u2019s five at-large seats in the primary last month. Martin is an organizer with grassroots groups Free the People Rochester and VOCAL-NY, and formerly worked as a mental health counselor serving incarcerated people in the county jail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Martin ran as part of the \u201cPeople\u2019s Slate,\u201d a group of candidates for city council and county legislature who mounted progressive campaigns for seats held by more moderate Democrats. Three of the slate\u2019s five candidates were successful \u2014 two for city council and one for county legislature \u2014 with one other county legislature candidate falling short by only nine votes<\/a>. The two city council candidates will join one incumbent DSA member to form a three-member socialist block on the nine-member council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tip Jar \u2192<\/a><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n\n\n\n

Support for the slate came from electoral organizing groups like Rochester DSA and the Rochester Working Families Party. It also grew out of the candidates\u2019 involvement with Black Lives Matter organizing over the past year, as protest organizers joined the campaign as volunteers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had young people who had just simply had enough and were willing to move from being out in the streets to being at the doors, talking about what we\u2019d like to do differently,\u201d Martin said. \u201cWe know that the [Black] Panthers were in the streets and they also ran for office. It\u2019s part of a larger group of tactics to fight for liberation on all sides.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The slate\u2019s platform<\/a> focused most heavily on policing, transfering funds from policing to social services, and reducing the presence of police officers in crisis response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such a platform struck some as a tough sell in a city that has recently seen a significant rise in violent crime<\/a>. \u201cWhen we asked \u2018What do you think the number one issue is facing Rochester?,\u2019 the number one answer we got was crime,\u201d Felisha Buchinger, an organizer with Rochester DSA, told New York Focus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather than downplaying crime, slate candidates attempted to convince voters that progressive measures such as increasing funding for social services work better than a policing-first model of public safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re doing is not working. The school-to-prison pipeline is not working. Our candidates believe you need to give resources to the community so they can build better lives. When you broke it down like that, people understood and they liked it,\u201d Buchinger said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the slate\u2019s city council candidates were heavily supported by DSA, New York\u2019s other flagship progressive group, the Working Families Party, focused its efforts on the Monroe county legislature. The county legislature primaries were even lower turnout than the already bottom-tier-participation council races.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to get people interested, because there\u2019s nothing sexy about county legislature,\u201d Stevie Vargas, chair of the Rochester Working Families Party and co-founder of Free the People Rochester, told New York Focus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the lack of attention paid to the races belies their importance. Monroe County is the second most populous in the state outside the New York City area, and its legislature controls a budget<\/a> of over $1.2 billion as of 2020, including over $170 million in discretionary funds. That year, the Rochester city budget<\/a> came to less than half of that sum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn a lot of ways, county legislature is more important than city council,\u201d Vargas said. Buchinger, who works with DSA and focused mostly on city council races, echoed the sentiment. \u201cA lot of legislation is hard to execute in the city without similar legislation being passed in the county,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For progressives and even mainstream Democrats, last month\u2019s county legislature elections were a watershed, due to the defeat of the majority of a bloc of conservative Democrats who called themselves the \u201cBlack and Asian Democratic Caucus.\u201d Despite being registered Democrats, the four members of the caucus and one closely allied legislator have for the past year \u201caligned strategically with the Republican majority in the Legislature,\u201d the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reported<\/a> in June. The group aided Republicans on recent key votes blocking ethics reform<\/a> and censure<\/a> of a legislator who sent unsolicited sexually explicit photos to a young woman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Candidates backed by the Working Families Party, including a professional boxing promoter<\/a>, defeated three legislators affiliated with the Black and Asian Democratic Caucus. With a fourth retiring, the bloc\u2019s influence is effectively dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The party balance of the legislature currently gives Republicans a one vote majority. Without the Black and Asian Democratic Caucus to bolster the Republican agenda, a strong Democratic showing in the general election could flip the body and chart a new course for Monroe County politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vargas said that this year\u2019s wins were a continuation of a process that began in 2020, when Rochester and Monroe County elected five new Democratic representatives<\/a> to the state legislature in Albany, three of whom flipped seats formerly occupied by Republicans. Like Martin, some of the candidates who won in 2020 had backgrounds as progressive organizers<\/a>. Those legislators have since pushed for progressive priorities including increased funding for public education<\/a>, marijuana legalization<\/a>, and a public health-first approach<\/a> to drug use. Local progressives expect the newly-electeds to do the same on the county and municipal levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWithin these last two cycles, the last forty years of the power structure in Rochester has been completely demolished,\u201d Vargas said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rust Belt Socialism<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In Buffalo, rather than slates of candidates, one shocking upset win made national headlines: first-time candidate India Walton soundly defeated four-term incumbent Byron Brown. Brown has since announced that he will run in the general election as a write-in candidate, but he faces an uphill battle to hold on to his seat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even so, Walton\u2019s supporters are taking his challenge seriously. \u201cByron Brown is going to have a lot of resources, he has pretty much 100% name ID, and it\u2019s the general, so there are more conservative voters who aren\u2019t open to India,\u201d said Ryan Stempien, a member of the Buffalo DSA steering committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The city looks set for a bruising general election campaign, and the opposing sides have already started to assemble their forces. Brown\u2019s press conference announcing his run was held on one of the properties of Buffalo developer Doug Jemal, and he was joined at the conference by three of the nine members of Buffalo\u2019s Common Council, the Investigative Post reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The coalition that pushed Walton to victory in the primary, meanwhile, has dramatically grown in strength since her upset win. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who did a robocall for Brown during the primary<\/a>, has called Walton to congratulate her. Leading lights of the progressive movement are fundraising for her, including Sen. Bernie Sanders and Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jamaal Bowman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And in Buffalo, much of the Democratic Party apparatus, whether or not they backed her primary run, have gotten behind her as the party\u2019s nominee. Erie County executive Mark Poloncarz, as well as Rep. Brian Higgins and State Sen. Sean Ryan, who represent Buffalo in Washington and Albany, respectively, have all publicly announced<\/a> their support for Walton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even Democratic Party chair Jeremy Zellner \u2014 who Walton claimed tried to use his perch at the county elections board to obstruct her candidacy<\/a>, New York Focus reported last month \u2014 has now said<\/a> that he and the party organization are \u201csupporting India Walton 100%.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBuffalo is so party and machine-based that now that India has that institutional backing, nobody wants to buck the party,\u201d Stempien said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tip Jar \u2192<\/a><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n\n\n\n

Assuming, as seems likely, that Walton does beat back Brown at the ballot box, a new question will arise: will she be able to implement her democratic socialist agenda when contending with the council of a city that has been called<\/a> a \u201cmoderate Democratic stronghold\u201d?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Progressives say it\u2019ll take replacing the local power structure with one more sympathetic to their goals. The common council is next up for election in 2023, and during the campaign and on election night, Walton talked explicitly about wanting to encourage more progressive outsiders to challenge entrenched incumbents. “If you are in an elected office right now, you are being put on notice. We are coming,\u201d she said in her victory speech<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Progressive groups in the city, having tasted victory, say they\u2019ve just whetted their appetite. \u201cNow that we\u2019ve got one win under our belt, we\u2019re going to be looking for more,\u201d Stempien said of Buffalo DSA. \u201cWe will be running at least two common council seats at the bare minimum\u201d in 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even without replacing members of the council, the threat of progressive primary challengers supported by an incumbent mayor could incentivize current council members to work closely with Walton, Stempien said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rob Galbraith, a policy researcher and Buffalo DSA member, pointed to council member Dave Rivera, who represents the Niagara neighborhood, which Walton won overwhelmingly, as someone likely to be amenable to Walton\u2019s platform. \u201cIf in two years time he decides he wants another term, I think he could very likely see a challenger, and would need to appease that base,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Galbraith also stressed that the mayor possesses significant power that can be exercised unilaterally. In Buffalo, the common council votes on a budget proposed by the Mayor. \u201cThat\u2019s a tremendous amount of power right there,\u201d Galbraith said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mayor also controls the Office of Strategic Planning, the agency in charge of land use decisions throughout the city. Walton is the founding executive director of Buffalo\u2019s Fruit Belt Community Land Trust<\/a>, a nonprofit that develops and sells affordable homes to low- and middle-income Buffalonians. Her platform<\/a> includes expanding a similar model citywide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For much of Brown\u2019s tenure as mayor, the council has been highly deferential to his agenda. Recently, however, it has pushed in a more progressive direction that also suggests a potential openness to Walton\u2019s platform, both Stempien and Galbraith said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In May, the council bucked the mayor\u2019s wishes by voting 6-3 to remove school zone speed cameras, which since 2020 had been issuing $50 fines to drivers who exceeded the speed limit, in favor of non-punitive traffic safety measures such as speed bumps and warning signs. Mayor Brown opposed eliminating the cameras, while as a candidate, Walton supported the measure, citing the disparate impact of fines<\/a> on poor people of color.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat was a perfect microcosm for the difference between India and Byron,\u201d Stempien said. \u201cPunish people, penalize people, set people up for failure, and then punish them when they fail\u2014versus investing, setting people up for success, and not trying to extract wealth from us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

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JUL 19, 2021\u00a0\u00a0SAM MELLINS (dailyposter.com) Progressives win primaries in western New York, intensifying their challenge to the Democratic machine. This story is being co-published with New York Focus, an independent news outlet covering New York politics. Last month, as Democratic voters in New York City puzzled pundits by nominating the moderate… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19429"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19429"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19430,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19429\/revisions\/19430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}