Hernandez withdraws from Niagara district council race
The Buffalo News political reporter, Robert J. McCarthy published a story Wednesday afternoon that West District School Board member Ralph Hernandez has withdrawn from the Niagara District Council race conceding he didn’t have enough signatures to qualify for the ballot to race against incumbent David A. Rivera.
Earlier in the race Rivera started to comb through his petitions to disqualify Hernandez from the ballot but it is not known if his withdrawal related to this.
Councilman Rivera had collected double the signatures Hernandez alleged to have submitted to the Board of Elections. There was a media story about Mayor Byron Brown involved in the race when it had been reported one of his employees attorney Peter Savage who previously competed against Rivera was helping Hernandez.
There appeared to be less of an organized political group behind Hernandez while Rivera had Nosotros and the political Democratic operatives of former Assembly Member Sam Hoyt.
This is not the first time Hernandez failed to make the ballot since it happened the last time he challenged Maria Whyte for the 6th District seat in the Erie County Legislature and has lost the school board seat several times before elected in 2004.
A political observer speculated that had Ralph Hernandez succeeded in making the ballot, it would have been a challenging race for incumbent David Rivera who had three lines and the support of the Puerto Rican political group Nosotros presided over by Wilmer Olivencia, Deputy City Clerk.
