So says the New York Daily News:

Rep. Nydia Velazquez is the front-runner - for now, at least - to replace Hillary Clinton if she becomes the next secretary of state, a source close to Gov. Paterson said yesterday.

There are two other top contenders: Rep. Brian Higgins of Buffalo and Rep. Steve Israel of Long Island. Each would help Paterson with key constituencies when he makes his first run in 2010 for the post he inherited from disgraced Gov. Eliot Spitzer - upstaters in Higgins’ case and suburbanites in Israel’s.

Velazquez offers the tantalizing possibility of killing two political birds with one stone by appealing to Hispanics and women - both critical voting blocs.

I see this as much more likely than Brian Higgins… and far more realistic than Byron Brown.

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There is a lot of speculation about who Governor Paterson would appoint to replace Hillary in the U.S. Senate if she ends up as secretary of state. The one getting the most buzz seems to Brian Higgins (D-27), but, there is another Western New York politician whose name has been tossed out there.

Here is an opportunity for the governor to make Western New York really important,” said Hank Sheinkopf, a Democratic political consultant from Manhattan. “He needs to get someone of high quality and substance from Western New York. It’s the fair and right thing to do.”

While Clinton refused to address the speculation Friday during an appearance in suburban Albany, the game of political dominoes is already under way. Some news outlets are mentioning Mayor Byron W. Brown as a potential candidate, and the mayor said Friday he would consider an appointment but is “focused” on his current job.

Byron Brown? Is that a joke? I have yet to meet anyone who thinks he’s been a good mayor for Buffalo, why would Governor Paterson pick someone as incompetent and corrupt as Mayor Byron Brown?

For what it is worth, Buffalo Pundit is on board the Brian Higgins train. And Robert Harding of the Albany Project thinks the “change we need” is another damn Kennedy.

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How’s this for Brian Higgins demonstrating his leadership and getting results?

With continued population erosion, above-average unemployment and slow economic growth, Buffalo has been included on a list of “America’s Fastest-Dying Cities.”

The list is published by Forbes.com.

Buffalo is the only city in New York state to make the publication’s list. The editors take into account a population loss of nearly 42,000 residents since 2000, an unemployment rate of 5.7 percent compared to 4.3 percent nationally and annualized gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 1.9 percent.

Forbes said: “Buffalo has long been synonymous with city-in-decline. In the early 1900s, Buffalo was one of America’s 10 largest cities, a burgeoning industrial center. It’s been on decline ever since, despite a location that takes advantage of trade with Canada.”

As someone who recently came to Buffalo from out-of-state, it’s really disappointing for me to see a city with so much potential wasting away because of failed leadership.

I heard a clip of Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown whining about the Forbes article, promising to write Forbes Magazine a letter talking about all the positive things about Buffalo that “prove” it’s not a dying city.

I guess that means that Mayor Brown is in the “denial” stage of grief.. but at least he still has his city car, right?

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Apparently some leaders are more serious about cutting costs and saving taxpayer dollars…

Rochester Mayor Robert Duffy plans to slash the city’s take-home car fleet, and he believes the best place to start is at the top.

“He decided to lead by example and give up his city car,” said Communications Director Gary Walker. “He’s leasing one on his own dime.”

Duffy isn’t using campaign funds, either. “It’s coming out of his pocket,” Walker said.

Duffy turned in his Chevrolet Trailblazer last week. In Buffalo — a city not much larger than Rochester — Mayor Byron W. Brown also has taken steps to slash the number of take-home cars. Unless unions win arbitration fights, 35 city employees who have enjoyed take-home cars at taxpayers’ expense would lose one of City Hall’s more coveted fringe benefits.

But not Brown.

Of course not. Brown is so important he needs to be on call 24/7. Imagine how disadvantaged Buffalo would be if Brown had to pay for his own car.

[Brown]’s keeping his city-owned 2006 Ford Crown Victoria. He does give up the vehicle when the snow starts to fly — but only so he can use a city-owned 2008 Chevrolet Tahoe. 

Brown makes no apologies, insisting his mayoral duties keep him on call 24/7. There’s never a day when he isn’t performing city business after hours, he has repeatedly asserted.

But Rochester’s Duffy is anything but a 9-to-5 mayor, according to his aides. While Duffy will receive reimbursement for mileage he racks up performing business with his personal car, city taxpayers will no longer be footing the tab for his rides back and forth to work. 

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It’s kind of depressing that I left one gun-crime-ridden city for another.

Bloody street violence struck Buffalo this week when at least five people were shot over a two-day period — Sunday and Monday — during four separate incidents across the city.

Four of the people were shot Sunday, but the most seriously injured was a 25-year-old man who was sprayed with a flurry of bullets that struck him multiple times in the head on Wohlers Avenue early Monday.

Antonio U. Jones was fighting for his life in Erie County Medical Center on Tuesday. Hospital officials declined to release his condition, but the shooting is being investigated by Homicide Unit detectives, which is an indication of the seriousness of Jones’ head injuries.

Police responded to a call of “person down” and found Jones in the street at about 3 a. m., according to Buffalo Police Department spokesman Michael J. DeGeorge.

DeGeorge said police have no suspects or motive in the shooting.

Records show that Jones has been arrested several times, including a court conviction in 2001 for attempted robbery.

Back in Boston, MA, the incompetent mayor, Tom Menino, talked tough on crime, but was more tough on guns. He prided himself on his gun buyback program, which did nothing to improve the gun violence epidemic. So, you can imagine I wasn’t surprised to find out that Buffalo had its own gun buyback program last year.

Mayor Byron W. Brown today announced the City’s “No Questions Asked” Gun Buyback Program will take place on Saturday, June 2, 2007 from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at six drop-off sites across Buffalo.

“Late in 2006, I announced that the City would conduct a gun buyback program as one of several tactics we will use to rid our streets of illegal guns,” said Mayor Brown. “And during my annual State of the City Address I reiterated that this program would be a no-questions-asked process where guns submitted at several locations will enable the individual to receive a pre-paid credit card at a dollar value based on the caliber of the weapon.”

Buffalo’s program is modeled after several other city’s successful gun buyback efforts, particularly the City of Chicago that in two different one-day gun buybacks retrieved over 4,200 guns.

The program netted 800 guns, and as you can see from recent headlines, it has worked so well.

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Mayor Brown proposes inspector general for city, at $80,000 a year

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