Steve Calvaneso dropped out of the democratic primary race for mayor yesterday afternoon, and indicated that his hope was that the people of Buffalo could unite behind a reform candidate.

And he didn’t mean Byron Brown.

“I want Buffalonians to have a clear choice between reform and the status quo,” says Calvaneso. “I hope they make the right choice so that we may all see a brighter future for Buffalo.”

I’m conflicted by Calvaneso’s decision. On the one hand, I hope he rescinds his pledge never to run for office again, because I thought he brought refreshing new ideas and a unique perspective - a businessman’s perspective - to Buffalo politics. When you saw him campaign, you could tell he was a bit of a newb, but above all he was sincere. You could tell that he gives a shit, and that he’s passionate about this city and this region.

On the other hand, he took one for the team. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who said right to his face that it would be best if either he or Gaughan dropped out of the race so they wouldn’t split the “not Byron” vote. I don’t know the background on why Calvaneso decided to drop - was it due to polling numbers? Was it due to pressure from people who wanted to unite the reform ticket? Was it because he was just sick of the process? I don’t know, but ultimately he macheted a path for Kevin Gaughan to become the singular democratic challenger to Byron Brown next Tuesday.

(Insert here the commonplace criticisms of Gaughan - he sounds like a Kennedy, he uses big words when little ones will do, etc.)

All of those criticisms of Gaughan are true and droll, but ultimately meaningless. The guy’s smart. He’s got ideas and vision. He wants desperately to reform Buffalo (and, incidentally, Erie County). If Gaughan’s plans were implemented, I’d all of a sudden become a resident of the City of Buffalo. And that’s fine by me.

Above all, Gaughan wants to take our mammoth, bloated, overpopulated, bureaucracy-laden, ineffective governments and completely overhaul them. Buffalo is now a small and shrinking city, population-wise. By eliminating red tape and feckless hacks from city government, Buffalo could help itself to grow and become successful again.

He wants to grow the city and allow it again to flourish. He will unify the IDAs to eliminate the freakshow of suburbs competing against themselves & the city for businesses. He will conduct a clean sweep in City Hall to ensure that the cream rises to the top, and we replace the political club hackorama with a meritocracy.

Here’s Gaughan’s plan. Go read it. It oozes logic and sense.

And it’s a hellofalot meatier than “I’ll use CitiStat”.

Ultimately, the way that a shrinking city can grow its tax base again is to become one with the suburbs. That’s Gaughan’s plan in a nutshell - a Buffalo Metropolitan Government (and not the piece of shit county-city merger Giambra’s been pushing.) The city benefits because all of a sudden the property tax on an Amherst Home is going to be paid not to the county, but to the streamlined Metro government. That means it will benefit the City, too. It also underscores something fundamental, but something that too many on both sides of the debate tend to conveniently ignore: the city and the suburbs are in this together.

Our politicians have fed that city-suburb divide, because it’s a convenient distraction for everyone. It helps opportunists like Giambra divide and conquer.

The primary is next Tuesday: September 13th.

It’s all about turnout. If enough of you go to the polls on Tuesday and cast a ballot for Gaughan, he just might win. Drag everybody you know - take the day off and drive people if you can - but I’d be willing to bet that, since only really hardcore voters generally vote in primaries, that it wouldn’t take more than a few thousand of you to vote for Gaughan to upset the Brown juggernaut.

I won’t say it’s your duty to vote, because that offends American individual sensibilities sometimes. But I will say this: I’ve been to places where a person’s vote doesn’t count. I’ve seen societies where voting was an obligation - forcing citizens to reaffirm their fealty to an oppressive regime. Voting is your voice. It’s the one way for you to tell our political cliques that you’re mad as hell, and you’re not going to take it anymore. It’s a way for you to reject the politics of old, which heap endorsments on candidates with the expectation of later reward.

But your vote - a few minutes to tick a box or pull a lever - can make all the difference. So no excuses. Go and do it.

Florida in 2000 proved conclusively that every single vote counts.

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