Miner for Mayor: A Woman's Dream Comes True.

By Brenda Leung
November, 03, 2009

Nobody seemed worried about whether Stephanie Miner was going to win. But everybody planned to stick around and to celebrate and hear what she had to say at the Sheraton Hotel Tuesday night.

"She is very bright," media consultant Paul Novak said. "She cares deeply about the city and tries to lead it into a new direction."

"She didn't want to put herself [gender issues] in the center during the campaign because she wanted to focus on the people," said Timothy Jennings-Bey, a member of the Trauma Response Team (newly created to prevent teen violence).

Syracuse University Professor of Religion, Richard Pilgrim also said that Miner wanted people to vote for her of her qualities and personalities but not because she is female.

Democrat Stephanie Miner was announced as the first female Syracuse mayor at 11 p.m. Miner led from the time the first returns came in and won just over 50 percent of the votes to Steve Kimatian's 39 percent and Otis Jennings' ten percent when it was over.

People waited for quite some time before Stephanie Miner calmed the cheering crowds by thanking the support of "temperamental women … and men in love with the temperamental women [as a nod to her husband Jack Mannion]."

Miner has always been criticized as temperamental and confrontational. It was the first time she acknowledged that her being a woman matters.

She promised her people that she would be a mayor they would be proud of and make Syracuse a city of justice, peace, and hope.