By Ruth Callahan
SALAMANCA — Enrolled Seneca Nation citizens go to the polls Tuesday to choose a new president, and the result will decide who takes over the Nation’s long standoff with Albany over a new casino compact. The compact is still unsigned. Gov. Kathy Hochul says there is no deal. The outgoing president says there is one in principle.
Polls are open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Seneca Allegany Administration Building on the Allegany Territory and the William Seneca Administration Building on the Cattaraugus Territory, according to the Nation’s official election notice. Enrolled members who are 18 or older and have no felony conviction may vote. Written challenges to the results are due at the Clerk’s Office by noon Thursday.
The Seneca Party’s nominee is Councilor Tina Abrams. If elected, she would be the first woman to serve as the Nation’s president. The presidency alternates between the two territories, and this term it goes to an Allegany candidate.
A caucus that settled the top of the ticket
Ms. Abrams won the party’s Sept. 18 caucus with 705 votes: 245 on the Allegany Territory and 460 on the Cattaraugus Territory, the Olean Star reported. Councilor Odie Porter received 449, and Councilor and former President Rickey Armstrong Sr. received 312. The Star reported that no opposition slate had been announced. As of Sunday night, The Buffalo Chronicle had found no public report of another party’s ticket or an independent presidential bid.
Ms. Abrams was the Council’s first female administrator, a post she held from 2012 to 2022. When she announced her run in July, she said in a statement: “I have dedicated my life to my people and my community. As president, I will do everything I possibly can to make sure that our voices are heard, our priorities addressed, our goals accomplished, and that our sovereignty is always protected,” according to Buffalo Toronto Public Media.
The caucus also rejected the incumbent. President J. Conrad Seneca had endorsed Ms. Porter for president and sought the party’s nomination for treasurer. He lost that race to Clerk Lenith Waterman, 991 to 443, the Star reported. “Our nation deserves a leader like Odie Porter,” Mr. Seneca said at her July launch.
The rest of the Seneca Party slate includes Bethany Johnson for clerk, who beat Dara Lichy 831 to 598 at the caucus. For Council, the Allegany nominees are Maurice “Moe” John Sr., Jody Clark, William “Billy” Canella and Teresa “Buinchie” Redeye. The Cattaraugus nominees are Ross John Sr., Presley “Prez” Redeye, Corbett Seneca and Todd Gates. Mr. John and Mr. Gates are former presidents.
The compact the next president inherits
The new president takes office with the gaming compact still unresolved. The 2002 compact expired in December 2023 and has been kept alive by short-term extensions. Under it, the Nation shared slot revenue with the state, and part of that money went to the host cities of its three casinos: Niagara Falls, Buffalo and Salamanca. Payments under the expired compact have been placed in escrow, BTPM News reported.
On Oct. 2, Mr. Seneca said negotiators had gone further than the state would acknowledge. “We negotiated an agreement in principle that, right now, contains no revenue sharing provision with New York State,” he said, according to BTPM News. “We expect this agreement will be finalized and sent to the New York State Legislature sometime in the spring.”
Ms. Hochul disputed that three days later. “Currently, there is no agreement,” she said in Buffalo on Oct. 5, according to WBEN. “Negotiations are ongoing, and we’ve been involved in productive discussions for some time. It’s a complicated issue, and we’ll let you know when there’s an agreement.” She also said: “When the Senecas stopped making the payments that they were legally required to make in the past, the State of New York stepped up. We continue to step up and support financially Niagara Falls, Buffalo, and Salamanca, because we do not want them to be adversely impacted.”
For the host cities, the stakes are budget lines. Niagara Falls Mayor Robert Restaino told reporters that losing the city’s roughly $10 million to $13 million a year would leave “a substantial gap to fill” in a budget of about $100 million, BTPM News reported. Mr. Restaino is set to present his proposed 2027 budget to the City Council at 5 p.m. Monday, the Niagara Gazette reported.
Republican gubernatorial nominee Bruce Blakeman, who was slated to meet with Mr. Seneca in early October, has blamed the governor for the impasse. “I think their biggest issue is the state won’t negotiate with them. The state won’t bargain with them. The state has been incredibly disrespectful,” he told WBEN. New Yorkers vote in the governor’s race the same day the Senecas pick their president.
Ms. Porter, who lost the nomination, had described the pace of talks with Albany as slow. “It has been moving along very slowly. The governor and I know each other,” she told WKBW in July.
A farewell, and what comes next
In his final message in the Nation’s newsletter, published Oct. 30, Mr. Seneca counted the compact among his accomplishments. He wrote that “we held firm to our stance throughout prolonged negotiations with Governor Hochul’s team, reaching an agreement in principle that includes no revenue sharing provision,” adding, “This new agreement will put the Seneca Nation in control of our own destiny.” He also wrote that his administration had met with members of Congress and the Trump administration to seek funding, help against drug trafficking on Seneca territories and federal support in the Nation’s disputes with the state, including its effort to recover more than $800 million in contested revenue-share payments.
He also wished the incoming leaders well. “I am sure they will have good days and difficult days, as there are many exciting opportunities, as well as difficult challenges, ahead,” he wrote in the message.
The new administration will also inherit the Nation’s dispute with the City of Buffalo over its Seneca One Stop construction in the Old First Ward, and a federal bill, introduced by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Rep. Nick Langworthy, that would repeal a Termination-era law giving New York criminal jurisdiction over Seneca lands, according to Mr. Seneca’s message.
Two weeks after the vote, the Seneca-Iroquois National Museum opens a new permanent exhibit, “Between the Basswoods: The Story of Buffalo Creek,” about the Seneca homeland around Buffalo Creek and what is now Buffalo. It opens Nov. 16, in the bicentennial year of the 1826 Buffalo Creek Treaty, with a reception on Nov. 18, according to the Nation’s newsletter.
The Buffalo Chronicle will report the results after the polls close Tuesday.
Leave a Reply