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.

Weak Student Turnout at SU's Bird Library

By Brenda Leung
November, 03, 2009

Weak voter turnout at SU’s Bird Library polling place on Election Day made for a significant contrast to the long waiting lines in the Presidential Election last year.

Judith Rooney, 68, closed the curtain, pressed the lever, and opened the curtain; showed a satisfy smile after she voted.

"I live right down the hill. The polling place is very convenient," Rooney said. And this year she didn't have to wait.

Election inspector Joe Fritz estimated that about 80 voters would show up by the time the polls closed and few would be students.

"Well, many of them are from out-of-state areas," Fritz said.

"There are not a lot of students probably because it is just a local election ... like last year, there were 1,000 voters comparing to about 80 voters today," election inspector Susan Greenman said. "Students should definitely be more concerned about the local issues because it does affect them; everything starts with the local government level."

SU senior Matt Cujak voted. "Although many students are from other places; some are simply being ignorant of political issues especially when it comes to a local election like this."

Some students came and were not allowed to vote because they were registered somewhere else or were at the wrong polling place. "A young man from the Erie County was very upset," Fritz said. "We hate to turn those students away."

Election inspectors gave out a few suggestions to increase student votes: non-local student should request for an absentee ballot or re-register their voting districts.

Chancellor Cantor Absent on Election Day

Elections Inspector Susan Greenman sat in her chair at Bird Library on Waverly Avenue at six this morning, waiting for the first voter. "We're open for business," she said. " I predict a few hundred voters at this location." One of the first usually is Syracuse University Chancellor Nancy Cantor. "Quarter after six we should be seeing Nancy," Greenman said. But the Box O'Joe cooled on the refreshment table for half an hour longer before the first voter showed up. It was not Cantor, but Ted Huber of the Westcott area.

Huber was the first voter for the Bird Library polling location on the SU campus. The vote for mayor was the largest issue that drew him to vote early this morning, he said. "I’m a Democrat but I crossed party lines,” Huber said after voting for Otis Jennings. “I wasn't happy with the [Stephanie Miner]." Huber, a veteran, votes in all elections, he said.

Election Inspector Greenman retracted her turnout prediction this morning, as the morning turnout was slower than she had expected. As of seven in the morning, only one other voter had cast his vote in Bird Library with Huber. They had come to vote together. "There probably won't be a lot in this location," Greenman said. "Not for a mayor election. The bigger the election, the bigger the turnout, especially students.”

Chancellor Cantor never did show up. Her office said Cantor was chairing a conference at Howard University and had voted absentee. Most of the other registered voters were just absent for this election.

Pasta and Politicians

Father Paul Angelicchio looked over the crowd in his school's cafeteria and saw harmony. "Here there’s no politics," Angelicchio said of the Our Lady of Pompei annual Election Day Spaghetti Supper that has drawn politicians from both sides of the aisle for 60 years. “Anybody who's anybody in politics comes through here throughout the day,” he said.

“Why does Obama not pray anymore?" Jacques Zenner, a popular Conservative who has run for Syracuse Mayor and the State Assembly joked with County Legislator David Stott (D-Liverpool). "Because he can’t read the teleprompter with his eyes closed!” Stott, who is up for re-election, and Zenner shared a laugh.

Across the room Heather Dougherty and her four year-old daughter Allison, in campaign t-shirts, smiled and socialized at their first Spaghetti Supper. They were there to support their husband/father Republican John Dougherty who was running for the County Legislature for the first time, Heather Dougherty said.

Onondaga Town Supervisor Tom Andino’s son Matt also came out for his first Spaghetti Supper to support his dad. The 25 year-old teacher chatted with his father’s colleagues until his father joked, “he’s not the one running!”

In the back, Joe Zella, of North Syracuse celebrated his 60th Spaghetti Supper selling pull-tabs to fundraise for the parish. “[Politicians] are all buying them but not one has been lucky yet," Zella said. "They’re saving [their luck].”

An Italian duo sang out over the chatter of the cramped cafeteria lined with politicians. Tonight some would celebrate while others were consoled, but this noon they talked and laughed and ate spaghetti.

Few Students Show Up to Vote at S-U's Bird Library

November 3, 2009


Today is Election Day but you wouldn’t know it if you were on the Syracuse University campus this afternoon. A student body which turned out in high numbers for the presidential election last November did not seem as interested in exercising its right to vote in the Syracuse mayoral election this year. Fewer than ten voters entered the two voting booths at Bird Library (right) from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. and election inspectors appeared to be trying hard not to doze off.

Sophomore Natalee Fisher was one of the booths' few occupants and noticed the lack of students voting. “I think people don’t vote because they don’t care very much or they’re not aware of the issues or the candidates,” Fisher said.

Syracuse University College Democrats President Kyle Rapone agreed that many students have no interest in the mayoral race among Democrat Stephanie Miner, Republican Steve Kimatian, and Conservative Otis Jennings. “Students don’t understand that it has not a bigger impact, but a huge impact, on us because we’re living here,” Rapone said. “So the mayor does have a big role in our lives but a lot of people just don’t know that.”

Sophomore Jill Feigelman said she did not vote this year because of registration problems but understands the importance of voting. “I think that students forget and young people in general that if we want to change the government we have to go out and vote,” Feigelman said. “A lot of people think everything will change on its own but it won’t so you have to keep voting.”

ESF Grad Rayo Beats Incumbent Heagerty

November 3, 2009

The cheers of Matt Rayo’s (pictured left) family and friends rang out Tuesday night in the nearly empty room at the Republican Election Night party at the OnCenter in Syracuse. Republican Rayo beat Michael Heagerty in the election for Syracuse common councilor in the 1st District. Or rather, Matt Rayo and Michael Heagerty beat Michael Heagerty.

Rayo, 23, is a newcomer to politics in Syracuse. He graduated from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry just last spring.

Heagerty had an advantage as the incumbent. This advantage and his Democratic Party affiliation ought to have been enough for him to secure reelection.

Except Heagerty didn’t get enough signatures to appear as a Democrat on the ballot, and had to settle for the Working Families Party line. This moved his name from the top row of the ballot to the bottom.

Commissioner of the Board of Elections Ed Ryan, D-Syracuse, told reporters a week earlier that he saw it coming. Ryan said Heagerty’s failure to sign his own name to the nominating petition is what cost him the Democratic Party line.

“People tend to vote with their party line,” said Bob Teachout, a Conservative who has run for City Council and State Assembly. He voted for Rayo, who is his neighbor.

In the unofficial vote count Rayo had 1,844 votes and Heagerty had 1,154.

“I think what it showed is that Heagerty, he didn’t really stay on top of the detail and unfortunately it adversely affected him,” said Matt Rayo’s uncle Robert Rayo. “[Heagerty is] certainly a good guy. Matt found a crack in the armor and moved right in.”

Low Voter Turnout at S.U.'s Bird Library

November 3, 2009

Voter turnout was low the first four-and-half hours of Election Day at Bird Library on the Syracuse University campus and election inspectors expected it to stay that way. Election inspectors (pictured right) said the big reason is that it's not a presidential election year and most college students don't care about local elections.

“Students worked for years to get the vote and now they’re not interested,” Norm Keim said. Keim has been an election inspector for 25 years. He is a former film professor at Syracuse University.

Keim said candidates wouldn’t want college students to vote in local elections anyway. Most of them aren’t locals and they have minimal knowledge or even awareness of local politics.

S.U. senior Audra Coulombe said she voted in the 2008 Presidential Election by absentee ballot. Coulombe can’t vote today because she’s registered at home in Southbury, Conn.

“I don’t give time to elections if I don’t have enough knowledge on them to make an educated decision,” Coulombe said.

Only 18 people voted from 6 a.m. when the polls opened until 9:30. Another hour brought just a single additional voter. Election inspector Susan Greenman said "a couple" were SU students. And while Onondaga County has spent millions on new optical scanners, all 19 voters opted for the old-fashioned lever machines.

Although Greenman optimistically referred to the polling place as “busy,” the corner of the library where the two voting machines were set up was deserted except for the four election inspectors as the morning wore on.