5 months ago
"The crossover effect for Byron Brown is certainly enough to raise some eyebrows," said political anaylst Bruce Fisher, Director of the Center For Economics and Policy at Buffalo State College.
"So it wasn't just the black vote, it wasn't just the white vote, this was everybody?" 2 On Your Side's Josh Boose asked Fisher.
"Correct," he replied.
But Mayor Brown's campaign says the strong voter turnout in the black community helped propel them to victory on Tuesday.
"It sure sparked something with African Americans," said Frank Mesiah, president of the Buffalo Chapter of the NAACP.
"What do you think they saw in this election that made them go out and vote?" Boose asked.
"What they saw were code words being used against him," replied Mesiah. "They saw people in the Latino community, where the mayor had appointed a Latino judge, but there's a couple people say he didn't do anything for the Latino community. We can read through that."
So what does all this mean for Buffalo's mayor?
"For the first time in a generation, an upstate executive is really on everybody's radar screen," said Fisher.
And he has been there before. Brown was on short lists to fill Hillary Clinton's vacant U.S. Senate seat and he has been talked about as a possible lieutenant governor if Andrew Cuomo runs in 2010.
And when asked if he would serve out all four years of his new term as mayor; Brown said his focus is on Buffalo and wants to
"enjoy this great victory."
Bruce Fisher says if Brown does run for a federal or statewide office he may have some trouble. He says most of the money and the power behind such campaigns are fueled in New York City not upstate.
Brown was born and raised in Queens and moved to Western New York to go to college.
