Byron W. Brown easily won the Democratic primary “” and with it a second term as Buffalo mayor “” trampling challenger Michael P. Kearns in a hard fought campaign that re-establishes the incumbent as a potent political force. Brown scored a land slide, tallying 63 percent of the vote to Kearns’ 37 percent, or 24,595 to 14,319, with 100 percent of the vote counted.
About 34 percent of the city’s Democrats turned out, meaning 38,914 of the City of Buffalo’s 112,037 registered Democrats decided the next mayor “” a relatively large turnout for a city primary. The win on the Democratic line essentially ends the 2009 mayoral campaign, since no Republican appears on the ballot for the first time since the party was founded in the 1850s. And because Brown, 50, appears on three minor party lines and Kearns on none, the mayor now looks forward to another four years in the big office on City Hall’s second floor.
Brown’s supporters celebrated early at their headquarters at D’Arcy McGee’s Restaurant on Franklin Street.
And at about 10:45 p.m., as several hundred supporters cheered and chanted “four more years,” Brown claimed the voters had once again given him a “mand ate.” [source]
