Ask the Mayor: Scanlon responds to endorsement news by quoting ‘The Godfather’

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — Following the announcement that Sean Ryan is expected to receive the Democratic Committee’s endorsement for mayor, Acting Buffalo Mayor Chris Scanlon responded in an interview with WIVB News 4.

Scanlon said that he was “fine” with the development — and that it doesn’t change anything with his campaign.

“Oh, I’m fine,” Scanlon said. “A little confused, a little confused by the timing of it. This was pegged as an open, transparent process where the zone chairs and the committee members were going to make a vote on Saturday so the timing of it coming out a little bit today is a little interesting to me. But like Hyman Roth famously said in “The Godfather,” this is the business we’ve chosen. And this really at the end of the day doesn’t change anything when it comes to my campaign. We’re moving full speed ahead.

“And I think what you’ll see is the level to which, and the extent to which we have support across the City of Buffalo and within the Democratic Party. I think this is a situation where there’s just a handful of people and maybe a little bit of inside baseball and, again, that’s part of the business that we’ve chosen. But it changes nothing with my campaign. We have the messaging, the resources, both financially and more importantly the people associated with the campaign, the volunteers that have signed up, close to 250 volunteers have signed up already and more continue to do so every day.”

Erie County Democratic Chair Jeremy Zellner told News 4 earlier Thursday that Ryan is expected to receive the official endorsement from the party for mayor. That endorsement is expected to become official on Saturday.

“We’ve taken a straw poll at several of these (convention meetings) and I believe after Tuesday that the rank-and-file really, really supported Senator Ryan at a big rate,” Zellner said. “And I would expect that on Saturday our executive committee is gonna take their recommendation for that.”

Scanlon, Buffalo Common Council member Rasheed Wyatt, and former Buffalo Fire Commissioner Garnell Whitfield are currently in the race for mayor. The primary election will take place on June 24.

“A vote must have taken place at some point,” Scanlon said. “So it was made clear that something was going to happen Saturday morning. Again, I find it interesting that it kind of came out today. But, again, we can live with that and it changes nothing when it comes to our campaign. We’re moving full speed ahead and we fully expect to be successful in June.”

Scanlon has been acting mayor since mid-October, replacing Byron Brown. Brown had been Buffalo’s mayor since 2006.

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Mark Ludwiczak joined the News 4 team in 2024. He is a veteran journalist with two decades of experience in Buffalo. You can follow him online at @marklud12.

Jordan Norkus is an anchor who has been part of the News 4 team since 2021. See more of her work here.

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