AwfulPAC Hilarity in Rochester

In the news: Kristy Mazurek and her AwfulPAC claim to have helped elect the next Mayor of Rochester, Lovely Warren. Warren responds, “who?” 

But as Warren sought to pivot from the campaign, a Buffalo activist behind a political action committee under investigation for election law violations claimed last week that her group was “representing” Warren in the election.

Warren will become the city’s first female mayor when she takes office in January. She defeated Mayor Thomas Richards and challenger Alex White last week after a lengthy campaign that saw considerable involvement by individuals and groups outside the candidates’ own campaign committees.

Richards had an unofficial campaign spring up weeks after he ended his own. Warren had close friend and Albany lobbyist Robert Scott Gaddy drop more than $40,000 on radio ads in the days before the primary. Then last week, activist Kristy L. Mazurek, the co-founder of the Western New York Progressive Caucus told WBEN930 in Buffalo on Thursday that the caucus was “representing” Warren in her mayoral campaign. No contributions are shown in either the PAC or Warren’s financial disclosure statements, however.

“I don’t even know who that is,” Warren said when first asked about Mazurek.

When later provided a description, she recalled meeting Mazurek at a luncheon days before the election but said they had no contact before or since. The luncheon was a fundraiser hosted, she said, by Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown “and his team.” Brown reached out after the primary to offer his support, she said, and he along with Assembly member Crystal Peoples-Stokes, D-Buffalo, (who also assisted Warren in the primary) offered to do the fundraiser.

AwfulPAC: Being awful since August 2013, and now under investigation. 

5 comments

  • This is sooooooooooo Kristy Pigeon, err… Mazurek!
    Mazurek and Pigeon ALWAYS make a mountain out of a mole hill in their constant inflating of their role in campaigns and in their self promotion.

  • Ridgewaycynic2013

    Kristy on another bender, can’t remember who she is repping for?

  • So…why is Buffalo’s Mayor, Byron Brown doing the duty for a candidate in Rochester, N.Y.?
    We just had an election here in Buffalo’s home county swept by republicans. I can think of nothing that Mayor Brown did to help the campaigns of his fellow democrats here at home.
    So…just what the heck gives Byron?

    Wait a minute, hold the presses. I just Googled Lovely Warren. Uh…she’s black. Ok Mr. Mayor. Now I understand. Cute. A little transparent. A little racial. But cute. Nothing for the party at home but support for a racial agenda down the road.

    Is there no shame?

    • Check out Lovely Warren’s campaign filings – she paid a handful of people from Buffalo “wages” from her campaign account. Maybe she’s not an innocent partner here.

  • The dynamics of these two WNY mayoral races are interesting. Both primary-winning African-American candidates decided to adopt Rose Garden strategies for the general election, refusing to acknowledge, debate or otherwise engage their campaigning opponents (Sergio in Buffalo, Green candidate Alex White in Rochester). What made Rachacha different is that a surge of minor-party and entrenched City Hall types mounted a shadow campaign for the white Democratic incumbent, who wound up getting 40 percent of the vote despite not campaigning for those final two months and despite endorsing his primary victor. I’m not surprised that the Pigeonistas tried to make political hay out of this in the waning days so they could claim “credit” for her victory and curry favor with her mentor in Albany, David Gantt.

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