Niagara Falls political reality

It is going to be a barnburner of a year for Niagara Falls City Council races but so far, all we have is sound and fury signifying nothing. Three seats are up.

Incumbent Democrat Donta Myles has announced his intent for reelection.

Former councilperson Vincent Cauley has also said he is running. He served a short term as an appointed Republican and then lost last cycle. Mike Gawel seems like he is running again as well.

Incumbents Traci Bax and Davic Zajac have both declared they are likely not running, but either Democrat could change their mind..

In the weeds there are characters like Donte Richardson, Tanya Barone and Lawrence Blaeber who all seem to be walking, talking and acting like candidates.

Niagara Falls Democratic Chairperson Colin Ligamarri has, so far, been above the fray.

County Democratic Chairperson Chris Borgatti has been pulled into the muck by Richardson.

Last week, Borgatti published a Facebook status inviting candidates to run for office and lamenting a bit that it is hard to find anyone with the time, inclination and money to run. It seemed like a routine call for candidates but not for Richardson.

Richardson responded with a Niagara Falls Reporter Facebook status slamming Borgatti as a weak leader.

The 100-plus comment thread on Borgatti’s post was in part fueled by trolling from Richardson and seemed like it was never going to end.

Richardson bills himself as “Tech Kanye” and brandishes a Stanford diploma while sometimes issuing threats to destroy people who stand against him. He has a special disdain for Niagara Falls Mayor Robert Restaino because he sees the mayor as having done zilch to better the community.

In fairness, while the Mayor did put the budget in order and spend American Rescue Plan Funds city halls and John Duke Mechanical systems, a new DPW building, a dog shelter and police and fire he didn’t do much that came from public hearings on how the money should be spent. The new streetlights are awesome.

Richardson’s main beef with Restaino is that he has failed to embrace tech development and turned away Odoo, a Buffalo tech company which has hired more than 300 people based at Fountain Plaza in Buffalo and is the rare publicly supported business development that seems to be reaching its hiring goals.

Odoo approached Restaino with Richardson and found no welcome mat.

Richardson’s critics are quick to focus on an easily searchable criminal history that shows a felony conviction related to a home invasion for which he served a prison term.

Myles chimed in with his own thread, wondering why he hadn’t yet been invited to interview for the Democratic endorsement.

Conspiracy theorists posited that since Myles wasn’t listed on the Dems Facebook page as an endorsed Democrat, he must not stand a chance.

Reality is that social media listing hasn’t been updated since the last election cycle when Myles wasn’t running. Endorsement interviews haven’t yet been scheduled for this year’s election.

If the Democrats decide not to endorse Myles because of his ongoing feud with Mayor Robert Restaino, it will likely be after an interview.

As for his feud with Restaino, it makes sense for him to harbor a grudge but for the good of the city, he should get over it. Play a long game but look for short-term positives. Three years ago or so, Myles was a caseworker for Community Missions helping homeless youths in the city in a position funded by Community Development Block Grant funds.

Restaino, as the all powerful city executive, cut funding for Myles position. Donta was forced to find a new career selling life insurance for National Income Life.

The mayor ran for reelection last cycle and faced a weak, politically inexperienced Republican challenger Carl Cain and almost lost. Shoulda coulda woulda but: If the Republicans had known how close it was they would have spent more money sooner and won. If the voters in the 4th District had shown up, that also could have resulted in a Restaino loss.

Meanwhile, there is the matter of the Democrats having endorsed the Mayor.

“How could you endorse him?” asked of party leaders was met with the defeatist “well, if we don’t endorse him he is going to win anyway.”

So here we are: We have a mayor with a bad temper and parochial agenda who should have lost but was accepted because “gee, what else should we do?” and a Republican Party that was close to getting an even worse candidate for mayor elected but didn’t realize it until it was too late.

How it shakes out remains to be seen because Brian Archie will stand for the people with Myles at least some of the time and his quasi-public job with the Create a Healthier Niagara Falls Collaborative does not seem to have purse strings the mayor can reach.

There might be some other way the mayor can exert political pressure but if Zajac and Bax are gone it will be hard to maintain a rubber-stamp majority going forward.

Our city deserves better.