Buffalo's Mayor Brown accused of trying to oust Assemblyman Hoyt
According to the first rumor, Assemblyman Sam Hoyt would resign in disgrace. The second one claimed the FBI was hot on the trail of Mayor Byron W. Brown. Neither rumor proved true, but each side accuses the other of spreading such allegations, which speaks volumes about the escalating feud between the two politicians.
The rift has helped to put Hoyt, up for re-election this year, in the cross hairs of some of Buffalo’s most powerful leaders, from Sabres owner B. Thomas Golisano to Philip Rumore, president of the Buffalo Teachers Federation.
“It’s time for a change,” Rumore said. “We also think Barbra Kavanaugh is a breath of fresh air.”
Kavanaugh, a former Common Council member, is staging a Democratic primary challenge against Hoyt, an old and now former friend. She has the help of some deep-pocket supporters such as Golisano and Buffalo developer Carl Paladino.
This is the second serious challenge that Hoyt, a lawmaker since 1992, has faced in recent races. Four years ago, he fended off an opponent — North Council Member Joseph Golombek Jr. — who had many of the same backers as Kavanaugh.
Is this new battle with Kavanaugh really about change and reform as Golisano and Rumore suggest? Or is it simply Round Two in Hoyt’s ongoing war with Brown?
“Their view is, ‘You’re either with us or you’re with the terrorists,’ ” Jeremy Toth, one of Hoyt’s closest advisers, said of the Brown camp.
Toth says the mayor’s fingerprints, as well as those of Deputy Mayor Steve Casey, are all over Kavanaugh’s Assembly candidacy.
They range from the dozens of City Hall workers who collected signatures for her nominating petitions to the involvement of G. Steven Pigeon, a Golisano confidant who has re-established close ties to Brown and Casey.
“We think he’s a phony,” Pigeon said of Hoyt. “He talks reform, but, in reality, he’s the same old Albany politician.”
Hoyt’s backers say the mayor’s involvement is bewildering given the city’s need for lawmakers with the seniority and clout to continue the flow of state aid to Buffalo.
They also see it as politically risky and point to Brown’s mixed track record, including two high-profile Common Council races where his candidates lost.
“People don’t want to be dominated anymore,” said Leonard R. Lenihan, chairman of the Erie County Democratic Party. “People want Byron as mayor, but they don’t want him running the Common Council or the Democratic Party.”
Lenihan is quick to note that Hoyt’s supporters include most of the party establishment, such as Brian Higgins, a South Buffalo Democrat with tremendous clout within the party.
Of course, all that would change if Kavanaugh, now a law clerk for State Supreme Court Justice John F. O’Donnell, wins the September primary and becomes the party’s official nominee.
“This isn’t personal,” she said of her campaign against Hoyt. “I really think I represent the type of change we need in Buffalo and Albany.”
The campaign to unseat Hoyt has created an odd collection of Kavanaugh backers, from Paladino and Golisano to Rumore and Brown.
For the mayor, the war dates back to 2003, when he and Hoyt were rivals for the top spot in City Hall. Even though Hoyt backed out and Brown won in 2005, the mayor never stopped viewing the assemblyman as a threat.
“This is all about the mayor’s political agenda,” Hoyt said. “I’ve also heard there may be a pot of gold at the end of the road.”
The pot of gold, he said, could be the judgeship Kavanaugh always wanted.
According to Hoyt’s backers, their battle with Brown has escalated beyond the Assembly race to the Democratic Party’s usually tepid county committee contests. They claim to have candidates in more than 200 committee races in and around Hoyt’s district, which takes in much of the West Side and part of North Buffalo, as well as Grand Island.
At Hoyt’s Elmwood Avenue headquarters, maps and charts detailing the races dominate one wall, proof that Hoyt is serious about increasing his clout within the party.
“It’s a battle royal,” Toth said.
Brown is running his own candidates — the slate includes spokesman Peter Cutler, Corporation Counsel Alisa Lukasiewicz and Brian Reilly, the city’s new economic development commissioner — in many of those same races.
But Casey, the mayor’s chief strategist, insists the target is Lenihan, not Hoyt.
“This has nothing to do with Hoyt and Brown,” Casey said. “This is really about the county chairman.”
Allegations that Brown and Casey are behind her candidacy are nothing new to the former legal-aid lawyer turned politician. Kavanaugh, recently appointed head of the Buffalo Arts Commission by Brown, acknowledges his support but says the city workers who collected signatures on her nominating petitions did so because they like her, not because of any order from the mayor.
“They work at City Hall, but they carried petitions because they know me,” she said.
Kavanaugh is fond of poking fun at her background, describing herself as the “anti-death penalty, pro-choice, poor people’s lawyer and lesbian” candidate. She acknowledges her odd coalition of supporters and chalks it up to her reputation as a professional, no matter what the job.
So does the city’s teachers union, a powerful force in local Democratic politics. The union can be counted on for valuable volunteers, phone banks and money.
“This is more of a pro-Barbra Kavanaugh than an anti-Sam Hoyt effort,” Rumore said.
The union, upset by Hoyt’s support for charter schools, might have found a sympathetic ear in Kavanaugh.
“I’ve always been opposed to charter schools,” she said last week.
Hoyt said he considers the city’s charter schools a success.
