FRAUD. Defined by Webster as, “willful deception intended to result in financial or personal gain”. In reality, in the court of law, there is no lesser word attributed to a simple mistake committed by a candidate.

The details presented in court were clear and I did not deny them. A page of signatures originally started by my partner, was placed in my van, unknown to me, unsigned/unwitnessed. At a later date, I picked up that page of signatures, assuming it had been started by myself, and finished the page and signed the witness statement. Never was there any intent to deceive, nor did I gain personally from this action. Had I noticed the signatures were gathered by anyone but myself, I would have had that person sign the witness statement. Simple. But I didn’t notice, because I was really the only person petitioning in the early days of our process. So I continued and it simply hadn’t occurred to me that that page would have been started by anyone but myself.

Case law is very clear. The candidate is held to a higher standard than had the mistake been made by a volunteer. Perhaps this is why most establishment candidates get very few, if any, signatures on their own. However, I feel the original intent of petitioning is to connect with voters. To ENGAGE with people in the community. That intention I took very seriously. Despite the cold, despite the long days, and despite the time commitment, time that took me away from my family and business, I committed wholly to the process. I spent 100’s of hours talking to people, listening to people’s ideas and concerns, and commiserating with people and their struggles. It was insightful, inspiring, and at times heart wrenching. Without hesitation, petitioning has been one of the most insightful and significant learnings of my life and I can now include my time in court as part of that learning.

Here’s what was most insightful. Without a doubt the Sean M. Ryan campaign spent tens of thousands of dollars to remove me from the ballot. The process of going line by line, through every signature to verify addresses, signatures, and party affiliation had to have taken hundreds of hours of staff time. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard during my petitioning, “I think everyone deserves a chance to be on the ballot.” And yet, here an elected an official, a senator, a public servant, a symbol of our democratic system, was working actively to keep other potential candidates out.

I’m not so naive that I don’t understand the game, I’ve been witnessing the games of the Democratic Party for the last twenty years, but it’s still jarring to witness the deep flaws in our system and how we’ve allowed it. We must commit to changing the rules. We must continue to be diligent in pursuit of legislation and rule changes to bring more people into the process, that elevate more leaders, and that create space for more voices.

Until then, we need to take our learnings and use these experiences to support grassroots candidates and support diverse voices. Here’s the thing, when the Democratic Party appeared in court, they showed all their cards in their effort to remove me. In so doing, they revealed their schemes, tricks, and strategies and you can be assured we were taking notes. Had Greg Olma still been with us, I’m confident he would have revealed some of these games and perhaps we could have avoided this situation all together, but we must pick up the torch and be the crusaders who guide and support candidates moving forward.

One thing’s clear, the systems of the Democratic Party have been corrupted to serve one purpose, to maintain control, to maintain their power. It comes at the expense of free and open elections which we so rarely see in our country today. It comes at the expense of open discussion and debate. And sadly, it comes at the expense of the health and vitality of our City and Region. We must resist the games and the trickery. We must resist accepting that it’s just the reality of our political system, because unequivocally if we were determined we could change it. And we must resist candidates, parties, and systems that limit democratic participation, access, and robust debate and discussion. All of our issues today can be traced to poor leadership, a lack of vision, and unaccountable elected officials that rig the system, to maintain their stranglehold on power.

We must commit to changing these systems and I WILL continue as a candidate for Mayor of Buffalo to highlight these issues and the work we all must do to improve our City. We’re petitioning on a new ballot line to “Restore Buffalo”. We’ll continue to give voice to our communities, we’ll continue to engage with voters, and we’ll be on the November ballot for Mayor of the City of Buffalo. Onward!