Fact-checking attack ads in Buffalo Mayor's race

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BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) – News 4 is Your Local Election Headquarters, and we're fact-checking nasty television attack ads from the top two Democratic candidates in the race for Buffalo mayor to help you separate fact from fiction.
The Buffalo primary is just days away and will be held on Tuesday, June 24. In these relentless attack ads, State Senator Sean Ryan is depicted as being too dangerous to be mayor. The ads against Buffalo Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon claim that Scanlon is tied to President Donald Trump, Carl Paladino and MAGA Republicans.
But not everything you hear and see in the ads is true.
'Sean Ryan is just too extreme,' one ad says. 'Carl Paladino and MAGA are with Scanlon,' another ad says.
You've probably seen these dueling political attack ads all over the airwaves. The two top Democratic candidates in the race for Buffalo mayor hurling accusations at the other.
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In one ad against Ryan, Scanlon's campaign uses real Buffalo police officers, not in uniform, making the claim that Senator Ryan is too dangerous. And, that he voted for bail reform — that's true, but he's also supported revisions to the bail reform law ever since it was approved as part of the State Budget in 2019.
It also repeats the false notion that India Walton wanted to cut $7.5 million from Buffalo Police and fire 100 police officers. This claim came up four years ago, during Walton's campaign against former Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown.
As an activist, Walton was aligned with the Defund the Police Movement. But, as a candidate for mayor, Walton's campaign at the time said her plan was to reallocate money to mental health programs within the department and that this would not result in layoffs — so that claim in Scanlon's ad is false.
'[…] and the hotel tax on out-of-towners to fund our police, he fought against that too,' the ad against Ryan continues.
Yes, Senator Ryan has been against Buffalo's hotel tax. But, the ad gives the impression that the extra fee could strictly fund BPD, which isn't the case. Instead, the hotel tax would be a way to balance the city's budget — so this claim is partially true.
The use of Buffalo police officers in political ads is a tactic that Byron Brown used to defeat India Walton four years ago and was a strategy that raised ethical concerns. In New York state, police officers are prohibited by punishment of a misdemeanor from using or attempting to use their official power or authority, in any manner to control, affect or influence the opinion of any citizen.
'If you read the statute very literally, you can see how someone could interpret that to say that what they're doing by getting on the ad, talking about police-related issues and then, having a banner that says these are real Buffalo police officers, but they're not in uniform, you could see how it could be interpreted to be an A misdemeanor, a violation of election law,' said legal analyst Barry Covert.
Covert says officers in campaign ads could still be protected under the First Amendment for free speech.
'First Amendment political speech is the most protected in the broad array of what the First Amendment protects by way of speech,' Covert said.
Scanlon's chief of staff and deputy mayor Brian Gould told News 4 in an email: '[…] any Buffalo police officer, male or female, that appears in a television ad for the mayor's candidacy is doing so as a volunteer, is not in a BPD uniform, is not representing themselves as a BPD officer or representing the department itself.'
Buffalo PBA president John Davidson says: 'The Buffalo PBA is fully endorsing Christopher Scanlon for mayor of Buffalo and we encourage our members to support him in any way that they feel comfortable, including political ads, while off duty.'
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Claims to defund Buffalo Police — although deceptive in these ads — can be effective, said Republican political strategist Carl Calabrese.
'Even staunch Democrats will tell you that when the Democrat party back in 2020 got onto the defund police message it was a loser and it's been a loser since and you've seen a lot of Democrats backtracking from those previous positions. So yeah, people want law enforcement, they want safe neighborhoods,' Calabrese said.
We questioned Acting Mayor Scanlon on the use of Buffalo police officers in his ad.
Asked if he was using real Buffalo police officers in his ads, potentially in violation of Election law, Scanlon said: 'I don't think that's the case at all, but I would say because the senator has a history, a track record of supporting legislation that impacts public safety in the City of Buffalo.'
Now to Senator Sean Ryan's attack ad against Chris Scanlon.
'He's been Carl Paladino's pick,' one ad says.
It's true when the acting mayor was a political newcomer over a decade ago, Carl Paladino supported him. Paladino, a local businessman, has been around politics for years — he once ran for governor and for Congress, and served on the Buffalo School Board.
'Paladino's made racist comments about Michelle Obama,' the ad says.
Paladino has faced accusations of racism in the past, while serving on the Buffalo school board for comments he made in an Artvoice survey nearly a decade ago.
'The Paladino's are even bankrolling Scanlon's campaign,' the ad continues.
Campaign contributions from the Paladino family to Scanlon came up during News 4's Mayoral Debate.
'Chris Scanlon has received tens of thousands of dollars from Carl Paladino and Carl Paladino has received tens of millions of dollars from the City of Buffalo. That ratio Chris, you're a cheap date on this one,' Ryan said.
WIVB News 4 looked up New York State Campaign Finance records and found that since Chris Scanlon became acting mayor and then announced he was running for the office, nine campaign contributions can be linked to Carl's son William Paladino, or companies in the Paladino family ranging from $150 to $5,200. Donations from William Paladino, Paladino Development, Ellicott Construction, Joseph Hannon, the president of Ellicott Development, the 4628 Group, and an LLC called 727 Elmwood Avenue — totaling $19,100 in campaign contributions.
'William Paladino is the owner and CEO of Ellicott Development and a personal friend; William Paladino has donated to my campaign,' Scanlon said. 'As far as the assertion that Carl Paladino is funding my campaign and fueling my campaign, I have not received one dollar in this campaign from Carl Paladino.'
We couldn't find any record of Carl Paladino directly giving campaign donations to Chris Scanlon. But Carl Paladino is still listed on Ellicott Development's website as the chairman of the board.
'It was me who was donating to the campaign, yes,' William Paladino said earlier this month.
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We asked political strategist Carl Calabrese about Ryan's approach against Scanlon.
'Ryan on the other hand, it appears to me that his polling is telling him attack big money donors, attack Trump, attack MAGA Republicans and tie Chris Scanlon into those things. He's probably looking at how those messages play to the core Democrat voter, what's called the prime voter,' Calabrese said.
What's not in Ryan's campaign ad is the $500 he received in 2014 from William Paladino when Ryan was in the state Assembly. We asked Senator Ryan about this.
'So, 10 years ago or so a donation slipped through my campaign, which I didn't find out about until a long time thereafter and we had a screen on the campaign for Ellicott Development and Carl Paladino, I never thought another Paladino would send a check in,' Ryan said.
Ryan says that $500 check was then donated to a group in Albany.
'We took that donation of $500 and made a $1,000 contribution to the Alliance for Quality of Education, a group that supports high quality public education,' Ryan said.
Senator Ryan says that policy not to take any money from Ellicott Development and Carl Paladino was then updated to include all Paladinos and their companies.
We did reach out to Carl Paladino to get his reaction on being brought into the campaign as a talking point. Carl Paladino says he has no comment right now on the ad and asked that we contact him after the primary.
Early voting in the Primary Election is already underway. The primary is just days away on June 24.
Since Scanlon became acting mayor
Date
Name
Amount
To
1/10/2025
William Paladino
$5,200
Friends Of Christopher P Scanlon
1/10/2025
Paladino Development Group Inc
$5,000
Friends Of Christopher P Scanlon
12/6/2024
William Paladino
$2,500
Friends Of Christopher P Scanlon
1/10/2025
Ellicott Construction Company II
$2,500
Friends Of Christopher P Scanlon
1/10/2025
4628 Group, Inc
$2,500
Friends Of Christopher P Scanlon
5/19/2025
727 Elmwood Ave LLC
$500
Friends Of Christopher P Scanlon
4/8/2025
Joseph Hannon
$500
Friends Of Christopher P Scanlon
1/7/2025
727 Elmwood Ave LLC
$250
Friends Of Christopher P Scanlon
1/7/2025
Joseph Hannon
$150
Friends Of Christopher P Scanlon
Jeff Preval is an award-winning anchor and reporter who joined the News 4 team in December 2021. See more of his work here.
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