This week’s biggest Winners & Losers

Buffalo is getting its first female mayor after the socialist community activist prevailed over four-term incumbent Byron Brown in the Democratic primary. He evidently thought he could win without really trying very hard, but while he was asleep during the race, she was knocking on doors and building her profile with the help of the Working Families Party. Brown sped up down the home stretch but still ended up seven-points behind on Election Day. It all sounds like a familiar political fable by now. Just ask Joe Crowley!

Is it too soon to call Adams a winner of the Democratic mayoral primary? Probably not. Even though it will likely take a few weeks for all of the votes cast in the election to be tallied, Adams was the clear winner of the evening, racking up the largest percentage of votes and with such a strong early lead it’s hard to imagine him not being declared the official winner. Always nice to see “the little guy” come out on top.

Final election results are still coming in, but it’s probably not too soon for the co-founders of the 21 in ’21 initiative – a campaign to elect at least 21 women to the overwhelmingly-male New York City Council – to celebrate. The council is very likely to have at least 22 women next year, and possibly more. If every female candidate currently leading in their primary race wins – still an “if” – the council would be majority female, many of them women of color. And by the time we know for sure just how many women are headed to the council, the success of 21 in ’21 may not be the only victory Crowley has to celebrate.

After months of dominating the polls and public conversation surrounding the election, Andrew Yang’s mayoral campaign came to a crashing halt Tuesday night after the first round of ranked-choice voting tabulations placed the entrepreneur and former presidential candidate in fourth place. Yang conceded shortly after at his election night party, acknowledging to dismayed supporters that he did not have a path to victory. Yang’s concession signals the end of an unconventional campaign marked by enthusiasm, zany public appearances, surprise endorsements, and some criticism of his lack of direct experience in local politics. As for what’s next for Yang? Who can say, though he says he intends to lend support to the new mayor.

Ending with a fizzle, not a bang, Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren’s tenure as mayor came to an anti-climatic end on election night. Battling criminal charges over her 2017 campaign finances and facing scrutiny over the suppression of information about Daniel Prude’s death, Warren came into the primary election with a handicap pollsters didn’t expect to overcome. Her opponent didn’t differ from her much on policy, but had name recognition, had avoided scandal and ran on transparency. It was enough to propel him to a landslide victory, and Warren into the annals of history.

Many moons ago, Rudy Giuliani was one of Manhattan’s top federal prosecutors. Now, the former New York City mayor is not only being investigated by the very office he previously led – he can’t even practice law in New York now. A New York court temporarily suspended Giuliani’s law license for repeatedly making false statements about the 2020 presidential election which it said “directly inflamed” riots at the U.S. Capitol in January. Up next might be disbarment. Perhaps the real loss is for Giuliani’s pool of possible legal clients in New York, who were lining up to pay $20,000-a-day to get legal help from a man who got pranked by Borat, butt-dials reporters and faces federal investigation.