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<\/a>\n\t\t\t\tNews and analysis by Geoff Kelly<\/a>, Investigative Post’s political reporter<\/p>\n
Erie County Democrats are at war with one another.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not the rank-and-file voters who are splitting into camps.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the campaign operatives, the holders of patronage jobs, the elected officials and committee members.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re at odds over who the party will support to succeed Mark Poloncarz as county executive when that office is on the ballot next year.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re divided over the June primary race between Jeremy Zellner, the party chairman, and Jon Rivera for the 61st District state Senate seat.<\/p>\n
In the City of Buffalo, party factions are jousting for committee spots with an eye on controlling party endorsements in next year\u2019s Council elections.<\/p>\n
Some of the tension surfaced this week in the form of allegations that Niagara District Council Member David Rivera engaged in \u201ca pattern of harassment, intimidation, trespass, and coercion\u201d aimed at convincing candidates for party committee in the Niagara District to drop their challenges to incumbents.\u00a0<\/p>\n
WGRZ\u2019s Nate Benson was first to report the story<\/a>, which began circulating on Friday. The aggrieved parties filed complaints with the city\u2019s ethics board, county election officials and Council leadership.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a lot of context here and a byzantine cast of characters. I\u2019ll try to keep it simple.<\/p>\n David Rivera, a city lawmaker since 2008, is the father of Assembly Member Jon Rivera, who this year is running in the Democratic primary for the 61st District state Senate seat. That\u2019s the office Sean Ryan vacated the first of the year, when he was sworn in as mayor of Buffalo.<\/p>\n Jon Rivera\u2019s opponent is Zellner, the Erie County Democratic Party chair who in February won a special election to finish Ryan\u2019s term, which runs through the end of the year. Zellner and Rivera are competing for a full two-year term that\u2019ll begin next January.<\/p>\n Jeremy Zellner, left, and Jon Rivera.<\/p>\n Most party leaders in the district \u2014 which includes much of Buffalo\u2019s West Side, the City of Tonawanda, the towns of Amherst, Grand Island and Tonawanda, as well as the villages of Kenmore and Williamsville \u2014 are lining up behind Zellner, their longtime chair. Organized labor is mostly with Rivera.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s a bitter contest<\/a> between previously allied factions. The Riveras and their West Side political operation for years have been loyal supporters of Zellner and Democratic headquarters.<\/p>\n Now, Jon Rivera claims, Zellner is trying to punish his family and their allies by means of proxy candidates for party committee seats in the Niagara District. Zellner denies it.<\/p>\n Drama in the Niagara District\u00a0<\/p>\n Elections for party committee seats are rarely contested, but last week multiple slates of candidates filed nominating petitions<\/a> to take on incumbents in 10 of the West Side election districts David Rivera represents on the Common Council \u2014 about half the Niagara District.\u00a0<\/p>\n (Committee members generally run in pairs. Each election district in the county gets two of them. They elect party officers and sometimes have a say in endorsing candidates for public office.)\u00a0<\/p>\n Incumbent committee members facing challengers include both David Rivera and Jon Rivera, as well as other members of the Rivera family. Wence Valentin, president of Local 774 of the United Auto Workers \u2014 which endorsed Jon Rivera in the Senate race<\/a> \u2014 got an opponent, too. There\u2019s a challenger in the election district represented by Bryan Ball, president of the Stonewall Democrats of Western New York. Stonewall hasn\u2019t endorsed anyone yet.\u00a0<\/p>\n The challenger, Stephen Olsick, told me in an email Wednesday his target is not Ball but Eric Walker, Ball\u2019s fellow committee member.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no conspiracy by ECDC or anyone else regarding these committee races. We are all deeply rooted in the community,\u201d Olsick wrote.<\/p>\n Many of the challenges were organized by Alex Burgos, a party activist who in January announced his candidacy to succeed Jon Rivera in the Assembly. Rivera is forsaking reelection; he can\u2019t run for both offices at once.<\/p>\n Burgos dropped his bid in February<\/a> and threw his support behind Karen Hoak of Hamburg, who has the Democratic endorsement. The Riveras aren\u2019t saying so publicly, but they prefer attorney Adam Bojak, a city resident. (Bojak also has a challenger for his Niagara District committee seat.) The third candidate is Kevin Deese, a city resident whose husband hails from Hamburg \u2014 giving him connections to the two biggest communities circumscribed by Rivera\u2019s 149th Assembly District.<\/p>\n Burgos is reportedly interested in running for the Niagara District Council seat \u2014 or at least having a say in who has the party\u2019s support \u2014 should David Rivera decline to run for another term next year, as many expect him to do. If Burgos\u2019s candidates win their election districts, they\u2019ll wield influence over that.<\/p>\n Burgos recruited candidates and filed their nominating petitions, but Jon Rivera claims Zellner is behind the Niagara District committee races. He said Zellner is punishing the father for the sins of the son \u2014 namely, having the temerity to run a primary challenge against the party chairman.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fact that Chairman Zellner would run challenges to the president of the Stonewall Democrats of WNY, the UAW regional president and a group of Latino committee people speaks to the divisive nature of his candidacy and his tenure,\u201d Rivera told me on Monday.<\/p>\n He called Zellner \u201cunfit to lead.\u201d<\/p>\n Zellner\u2019s camp fired right back.<\/p>\n \u201cJon Rivera loves to make accusations about backroom deal-making in politics, but he and his father seem to have a real problem with anyone choosing to run for office when they didn\u2019t hand pick them,\u201d Morgan Hook, a spokesperson for Zellner, told me in an emailed statement on Tuesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAnd then threatening those candidates on their doorsteps \u2014 all of it caught on video \u2014 is beyond the pale.\u201d<\/p>\n Hook said Zellner \u201chas no role in these committee races.\u201d<\/p>\n Three surveillance Ring camera videos from the same house were circulated to members of the news media last Friday, purporting to show David Rivera intimidating a constituent. To my eye, Rivera doesn\u2019t come across as threatening.<\/p>\n It\u2019s hardly unusual for party operatives and elected officials to try to talk prospective opponents out of their races \u2014 or to check the validity of signatures on nominating petitions.\u00a0<\/p>\n Still, there\u2019s a power imbalance at play \u2014 a city lawmaker asking a constituent to curtail political activity. Three challengers to the Riveras\u2019 committee members signed papers to drop out before Monday\u2019s deadline to do so.\u00a0<\/p>\n Olsick, the Burgos slate candidate, claimed in an email that the Riveras \u201cmost certainly engaged in the conduct outlined in the complaints.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Howard Johnson, the Democratic commissioner for the Erie County Board of Elections, told WGRZ\u2019s Benson the charges were \u201cvery serious.\u201d<\/p>\n Take that with a grain or two of salt.<\/p>\n Johnson, a party vice-chair, landed the $146,000-per-year commissioner\u2019s post in December courtesy of Zellner, who gave it up to run for the Senate seat. Prior to working for the elections board, Johnson was an Erie County legislator. In 2019, he was appointed<\/a>, not elected, to the seat previously held by Barbara Miller-Williams \u2014 who that same year was appointed, not elected, to the office of city comptroller.\u00a0<\/p>\n So Johnson owed that job to the party chairman, too.<\/p>\n The bigger picture<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/zellner-rivera.jpg\")
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