On paper, the City Court race wasn’t a contest.
Two open seats for Niagara Falls City Court judge. Two candidates – only two: Chief Judge Danielle Restaino running for reelection and attorney Jason Cafarella making his transition from lawyer to the bench.
Both were sure to be elected—as long as they got at least one vote, since there was no other opposition.
Both were cross-endorsed by every party — Democrats, Republicans, Conservatives, and Working Families.
Both were guaranteed to win.
Out of roughly 9,000 voters of this small city with the famous name, Cafarella received 5,457 votes. Restaino got 3,517 — a difference of nearly 2,000 votes in a race where voters could check both boxes.
They could vote for one or two, or neither.
Nearly 2,000 voters walked into the booth, supported Cafarella, and refused to support Danielle Restaino — knowing she’d win anyway.
Why was that?
Danielle Restaino is a respected jurist with a spotless record. No one has ever complained about her performance.
But she carries the surname that divides the city. Her father, Mayor Robert Restaino, has spent the past four years waging political and legal war with anyone who questions him. The land fight, speculative plans, the court battles, the hockey rink debacle, his favoritism, the rising crime, the worsening streets, and the continuous exodus of working people.
Almost two thousand men and women looked at the name and looked past it.
The Council Losses Deepen the Message
The same story unfolded in the City Council races. Mayor Restaino fielded three candidates in an open bid to take control of the council — to build a majority that would give him the votes to push every spending project no matter how extravagant, no matter what else is neglected.
He wanted a council without opposition, regardless of the cost. Of the three candidates aligned with him, only one was elected. The other two were defeated.
Taken together, this paints a picture: the people of Niagara Falls aren’t buying what Restaino’s selling -or at least not at his inflated price.
A Political Warning Shot
Danielle Restaino, of course, will remain on the bench.
But her father — the mayor who promised renewal and delivered division — has been humbled by his own electorate.
She was going to win. Everyone knew that. They did it because they were angry at her father, the king of a small town.
Once, the Restaino name meant hard work, good talk, and a promise that things would get better. Now it means lawsuits, blueprints, and shouting at meetings. Keeping meetings secret. Avoiding sunshine laws.
Yes, the message was simple: Niagara Falls wants change.
He will say it means nothing. He will be wrong.
Two judges guaranteed victory, yet only one emerged with the city’s blessing.
Her father’s long, opaque shadow had crept into the voting booth. And in the privacy there, they did not see a good judge; they saw the name of a bad mayor.
Cafarella: 5,457 votes. Judge Restaino: 3,517 — a gap of nearly 2,000 in a contest where voters could select both.
Roughly one in five deliberately left the mayor’s daughter’s name unchecked. If they’d simply been checking both boxes by habit, the totals would be nearly identical.
Leaving Danielle’s name blank was a protest vote.
Nearly 2,000 missing votes don’t happen by accident.
Cafarella’s 60% to Danielle Restaino’s 39% is a measure of how many voters were willing to withhold a vote from a daughter to express disapproval of her father.
This pattern — a heavy undervote on one name — happens when voters are sending a message.
The Restaino name isn’t bulletproof anymore.
