The candidates in the city of Binghamton's mayoral race traded volleys after an old video of the challenger was made public.
Until this week, incumbent Republican mayor Jared Kraham and his Democratic challenger, Miles Burnett, have kept their campaign communications mostly to policy and issues.
On Tuesday, a video of a teenaged Burnett spouting racially derogatory statements, including using the N-word, was sent around to news media. It was unsigned and no one has taken responsibility for sending it.
What followed was a statement from Kraham expressing disgust and apologies from Burnett. The Broome County Democratic Committee issued a statement.
Binghamton City Council Member Kinya Middleton spoke about the situation at Wednesday’s city council meeting. Middleton is African American. She represents the 2nd District.
(Middleton's full remarks can be heard here:)
Here’s some of what she said:
"Racism is a reality, and basically we should be outraged by it all, not just certain things, not just cherry picking. We should be outraged about every single thing, not just this video.
I don't think that racism or this topic should be used as a platform for an election, when it is very sensitive to people like myself, like [City Council Member Carla Murray], like other people here who go through this every single day. All forms of hate is wrong, and we need to do better.
We really have to start focusing on the things that matter every single day. I reside in the 2nd District, but I work on the Northside of Binghamton. And on my way to work, and working every single day, I see the things that we need here. I do not know what the future may hold for Binghamton, but we need to do better. Like, it is, it is not okay. It really isn't.
There are kids who are homeless, and it hurts my heart that kids cannot, that kids don't have the same ability as my daughters to go from kindergarten to fifth grade in one school. These are simple things that we owe our children. So while we're going back and forth with all these things, we have to find a way to do better for Binghamton.
And as far as us condemning or myself condemning Miles, like, I've already, I've had this discussion with him about it and how I felt and how I feel about it. I think the next step in moving forward is whoever is going to sit in that mayor's seat, they need to work with city council. We need to work together to do the right thing for Binghamton. But we cannot have things like this – just the whole energy of it, like nothing will get solved if we're not working together. Thank you."
Election Day is November 4.