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Buffalonian Kevin Hayes writes:
26 August 2002
Bruce,
You say in your report on the Mayor's press conference that the Niagara District Council seat is "a lock for the white majority". It's not as simple as that, and I suspect you know better.
I believe the district's new borders are much the same as they've been since the mid-90's. I haven't seen the numbers for the nine-district plan, but I believe there's been no major change. Robert Quintana, a Puerto Rican, was elected in 1995 and 1997; he likely would have won in 1999 if he hadn't run for an at-large seat. He won because he ran a better campaign than his opponents, and people were sick and tired of Carl Perla.
Nick Bonifacio was elected in 1999 because there were six candidates in the field who split the various ethnic votes in several ways and left the way clear for Nick, backed by the energetic Perla machine, to get the voters in the booth flicking the correct lever. Nick won't be running again, and I expect we'll see a similar race in 2003. It will be won by the best organized campaign team.
I was at one time a supporter of Quintana, but have since learned enough to consider him to be highly toxic and a very poor representative of any community, let alone Buffalo's Latinos. I worked against Nick Bonifacio in 1999 but now work quite well with him and consider him a decent, concerned and hardworking man.
Elections are not always decided based on pure demographics, particularly in a small electoral district with fairly low turnout. They're always won by the candidates who field the best campaign and get their supporters into the booth, voting for them.
By the way, I commend you for publishing your website. We could use more good writing and free discourse, not less. Too bad it rarely happens in the local newspapers.
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