Retiring Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes was sure that she wanted her longtime adviser Leah Halton-Pope to succeed her in the lower chamber. So sure, that Peoples-Stokes waited to announce in April she wouldn’t seek reelection, at which point petitioning had closed for the Democratic primary.
And after a brief backroom Buffalo papal conclave, Halton-Pope was given a clear path to victory and a ticket back to Albany.
After years working with Peoples-Stokes, Halton-Pope has more recently been leading her own office as majority leader of the Buffalo Common Council, where she’s also been leading the opposition to new Buffalo Mayor Sean Ryan’s budget plan for the financially strapped city…