Almost as disturbing as Brown’s shady collusion with his supposed ideological enemies was the local press’s feigned or actual ignorance of what was clearly going on. Despite years of reporting on Brown’s ties to Paladino, most of Buffalo News, veteran Buffalo News political reporter Bob McCarthy played them down in an Oct. 26 appearance on WNYC Show by Brian Lehrer. Referring to Brown, Lehrer said: “He welcomes support from Carl Paladino at the very least, it looks like.” “No, that’s not true,” McCarthy replied. “The mayor did not accept Carl Paladino’s support and, in fact, rejected it.” Continuing, Lehrer said: “There is Carl Paladino money in his campaign. Is that what you’re saying? ”McCarthy replied,“ I don’t know about that. I don’t know. I would have to check that out.

It’s clear that Republicans both aided and celebrated Brown’s general election triumph, and equally clear that most of New York’s top Democratic officials did nothing to help Walton or actively support Brown. Jay Jacobs, the chairman of the state’s Democratic Committee, not only refused to support Walton, but compared her to David Duke, the former great wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. New York Governor Kathy Hochul, from Buffalo, refused to support Walton and backed Beaty just three days before the election. New York State Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes, a black woman from Buffalo and the first woman in state history to serve as Majority Leader of the Assembly, argued Brown.

“Rather than articulating a positive vision for the future, Brown and his GOP supporters waged a negative, sexist and defamatory campaign that fueled right-wing participation,” said Ravi Mangla, spokesperson for the New York Working Families Party. me in an email. “The Democratic leaders who supported Byron Brown’s written campaign, or stood passively on the sidelines, bear responsibility for the results we are seeing at the county level.” That the main Democrats were prepared to collaborate with Republicans, including active Trump supporters, or ignore their involvement in the mayoral race, refuse the support of the main Democratic winners and tacitly allow dishonest advertising campaigns and possibly illegal to crush the mayoral candidate of their own party is bad enough. That in doing so they also helped defeat Beaty, a black woman who attempted to bring modest reforms to a mortal sheriff’s office, is unforgivable.