October 26, 2005

Can Mahoney Win?

Despite a strong urban Democratic presence, Republicans have occupied City Hall
By Walt Shepperd - Syracuse New Times

Dance of the Dynasties
For the past two decades Syracuse mayoral politics have been contested in a relatively closed shop. As the election of 1985 approached, after 16 years under the reign of Lee Alexander, local Republican concentration on the quest for City Hall had withered as the majority of registered city voters slipped into the Democratic column and the big money and a big percentage of white folks who happened to be Republicans fled to the county's towns and villages.

The first three elections of that 20-year stretch could be known as the Roy and Bernie and Joe and Tom shows, as the four squared off in mayoral primaries in 1985. Roy Bernardi, who had learned his politics from Alexander, then switched parties to run against him in 1981, beat Common Councilor and later state Assemblyman Bernie Mahoney in a Republican face-off.

When Alexander, perhaps knowing that federal investigators were closing in, announced he would not run for a fifth term, Common Councilor Joe Nicoletti, who had also been mentored in the craft by the Golden Greek, saw himself as an automatic heir apparent. Alexander, however, shifted his organizational support to an 11th-hour effort by State Fair director Tom Young, whose father had been the driving force behind a minority status Democratic Party for the previous generation. Young beat Nicoletti in the Democratic primary and Bernardi in the general election. Mahoney took on the thankless task of opposing Young's re-election bid and ran a respectable, if unsuccessful, race with campaign workers recruited mostly from his immediate family.

Young probably could have been re-elected in 1993, but he was unsuccessful in trying to repeal the city's two-term limit for mayor. Nicoletti, having bided his time holding court in ice cream parlors on the North Side and downtown for eight years, again struck the heir apparent stance, only to be challenged by current County Court Judge Joe Fahey, whose father James had served on the city bench.

While both party primaries in 1985 saw staged battles between the city's major power blocs, North Side Italians vs. West Side Irish, the ethnic rivalry in the 1993 primary turned nasty. When Nicoletti triumphed in the prelim, Fahey's supporters stayed home, giving the election to Republicans who had not even dreamed of winning. After unsuccessfully courting former Syracuse University head football coach Dick McPherson to carry its banner, the GOP had been unable to give the nomination away until Mahoney nominated a reluctant Bernardi at a sparsely attended convention in the Valley Fieldhouse.

Four years later Democratic wounds still had not healed, and when Ted Limpert carried Young's blessings into the 1997 election, Nicoletti's faithful voted their heritage or stayed home, guaranteeing Bernardi a second term. For Bernardi, however, it would be terminal frustration. "I can't get anything done," he lamented soon after being re-elected. "Everyone on the Council is running for mayor and business is waiting to see if it can get a better deal with whoever comes next."

Bernardi resigned in the summer of 2001, before his second term was finished, taking a job at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and giving City Hall back to the Democrats who, even with a significant edge in voter registration, had not been able to win it at the polls. Standing next in the City Charter's line of succession, Council President Matt Driscoll took his seat in the big chair at City Hall, which he has held for the past five years.

2001: A Mayoral Odyssey
But even before ascending to the status of incumbent-with-an-asterisk, Driscoll had thrown his hat in the ring for the election of 2001, which otherwise would have been a totally open race. Since the malaise of Bernardi's second term and a seemingly insurmountable edge in voter registration appeared to guarantee a Democratic victory, several prominent Democrats jockeyed for position to enjoy the spoils. While the other candidates waited for the time of announcing their intentions to be right, however, Driscoll realized that with the future of the city almost totally adrift, the first out of the chute would reap the advantage of showing the voters an intense desire to be mayor.

In the spring of 2000, Driscoll circulated letters to local business leaders asking for support and money. The results were evident at his June fund-raiser at the AT&T building, home of the Pioneer Company, which eventually emerged as the developer for the proposed Convention Center hotel. The small crowd showed both big names with big money and a big stretch to the various power pockets of the Democratic Party.

Early in his second term Bernardi had contended that his successor should be an African-American with a crossover appeal who could galvanize the disenfranchised communities of color, listing a dozen potential candidates from both major parties. County Legislator Sid Oglesby entered the quest for the Democratic nod, affirming Bernardi's contention with "The Time is Now" as his campaign slogan. As several other Democrats announced and a primary loomed as inevitable, Nicoletti, who had moved into City Hall as Bernardi's director of operations, dusted off his heir apparent badge and waited for a call that never came.
Although an African-American candidate emerged when Jennifer Daniels picked up the Green Party and Libertarian endorsements, the Alliance Network commissioned a poll which, by a narrow margin, established Driscoll as the most appropriate candidate for their approval. Although former Common Councilor Kate O'Connell narrowly beat out Driscoll for the Democrats' mayoral nod at the party's nominating convention, Alliance Network backed Driscoll in the primary and attributed support from the communities of color as the swing factor in his victory.

But primary day was Sept. 11, and as the terrorist attacks were destroying the World Trade Center Gov. George Pataki postponed the balloting for a week. Many veteran observers attributed Driscoll's victory to the tendency of people voting the status quo in times of crisis. Republicans had headed off a primary for their mayoral slot on the ballot with a power play at their spring nominating convention, which brought Mahoney back to the fore.

Two years prior, Randy Wolken had started talking about seeking the GOP nod for 2001. A West Point graduate with a master's degree from SU's Maxwell School of Citizenship & Public Affairs, Wolken had worked for seven years in the county's Office of Management and Budget before moving to the front line on the issue of poverty as director of the Samaritan Center. His first fund-raiser at Pastabilities attracted big money people from both major parties. He announced he was in the race to the end.

But after the vote at the party confab at the State Fair Boulevard Knights of Columbus, county chair Bob Giarrusso announced that the final tally would not be made public and that Mahoney had won. In his acceptance speech Mahoney anointed Wolken as the party's candidate of the future. Shortly before the convention was held Nicoletti switched parties and threw his hat in the Republican ring, but state Sen. John DeFrancisco kicked it back out, chiding Nicoletti as a Johnny-come-too-lately.

This year Republicans flirted with the idea of running Otis Jennings as Syracuse's first African-American major party mayoral candidate before seeming to embrace Wolken, now president of the Manufacturer's Association of Central New York, as having a realistic chance of beating Driscoll. Mahoney's daughter Joanie, however, emerged as a contender at last spring's nominating convention. That night's tally was announced, with Wolken the winner by 75 votes. But county party chair Bob Smith declared a recount necessary, and the following day it established Mahoney the winner after throwing out 17th Ward Chair Tim Stapleton's 77 votes and dismissing Wolken supporter Bob Gardino as city chair. Wolken and Gardino took the matter to state supreme court and won, but with the fix already in and the party boss against him, Wolken chose not to pursue the nomination.

The Candidates Speak
Which brings us to right now. Three candidates with three visions of the state of the city and what lies ahead.

"You will remember four years ago," Driscoll, 47, says now, "that people were very concerned about the lack of funding that had occurred over several years for the city of Syracuse. Syracuse was very dirty. The ranks of police and fire departments were depleted. You had a fiscal mismanagement issue in City Hall, and inattention to detail. So the mayor really needed to get things turned around, to build a foundation, and that, in fact, is what I've done. I have righted the ship and we are heading in the right direction. In my first State of the City, one of the things that I said was that we should have a Creekwalk trail from the Nation to the Lake. We're on our way to getting that done. This mind-set that some have that we can't do these things I think is what has prevented Syracuse and Onondaga County from being all that it can be."

Driscoll's senior staff met recently with a firm that is interested in working on the Creekwalk's next phase, from Armory Square to Midland Avenue. The latter venue has become a point of contention in this year's mayoral debates, with Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins, 52, chuckling, "I was debating Roy about this {in the 1997 mayoral race}." Now Driscoll declares that the operation of the Midland Avenue Sewage Treatment Plant, mixing raw sewage with chlorine before reintroducing it into the creek flow to Onondaga Lake, is "just plain wrong."

He says the sewage should be fed through an underground pipe to the Metropolitan Wastewater Treatment Plant before being dumped into the lake. While the Midland Avenue site has been under construction for several months, however, Driscoll maintains it is not his place to comment on whether the direction of the project can be reversed. Nor is it within his power. A county project under federal court order, the Midland Avenue experience can, however, serve as a case study for a similar facility proposed for Armory Square.
Hawkins, who is regularly wearing a tie for the first time since 1993, when he began running for office every year, also has a whole new take on the possible results of his efforts. Since his arrival from Vermont to found the local Green Party in 1991, Hawkins has personified the traditional role of third parties, being able to raise unfamiliar or unpopular issues because winning was out of the question. "With three people in the race you need 33 percent plus one," he speculates. "We've already had impact even better than I hoped for."

But rather than needing to modify his positions to attract more voters, his mantras calling for the creation of a municipal power authority for utilities has brought thunderous applause from audiences at debates and serious consideration from his opponents. "Everything is on the table," Driscoll says of a publicly owned utility as a response to Niagara Mohawk's announced 37 percent rate hike for next year. Mahoney, 40, says public power is definitely in the discussion, but she would also launch a campaign for Syracuse to become first in the nation in energy conservation.

When Hawkins first entered the race he saw himself as a spoiler at best, yet one who would tip the balance to Joanie Mahoney. He recalls when Mahoney ran citywide against a 2-to-1 Democratic edge in voter registration in 1999 and beat appointed incumbent Joe Callahan for an at-large seat on the Common Council. "She won by 400 votes," he notes. "The 800 votes for {Green Party candidate} Larry Ellis made the difference."

Elements building on a spoiler analysis include the combination of Mahoney being a former prosecutor in the district attorney's office and her over-the-backyard-fence campaign style, which makes her a unique kind of female candidate. Then there's a potential backlash from the communities of color if they feel they have been taken for granted by the Driscoll administration, a fact strongly suggested by a recent Zogby poll. Then there's the observation that Driscoll did not sweep into his party's nomination for re-election with the membership in total unanimity. Many party loyalists were privately describing his administration's work style as paranoid.

Even if she only got one four-year term, Mahoney insists, she would use her position to create real diversity in Syracuse, especially in the composition of City Hall staff in reflecting the city's racial makeup. She has already released an impressive list of business leaders who would constitute her brain trust on economic development, targeting an area in which Driscoll has taken significant criticism. In a slam at Driscoll's inner circle of advisors, she maintains she would hire the "best and brightest" she can find for key city appointments and develop talent banks from the area's colleges and universities.

While Democrats avoided a mayoral primary, there had been public discussion of one throughout the preceding year. Former School Board president Calvin Corriders did significant testing of the waters, including commissioning a poll, before deciding to wait four more years to make his move. Then Young emerged, publicly expressing his extreme disappointment with the direction of the Driscoll administration and dangling the possibility of running himself. Young and Driscoll met to discuss the issues. Former Young staffer Tim Carroll was brought on board as director of City Hall operations, and talk of Young's entering the race ceased.

"If people vote their hopes and fears instead of strategically voting for the lesser of two evils," Hawkins says, "and we get out with an army of volunteers and a list of those who are with us, we could split the Democrats." Exciting scenarios abound but the imponderables hover. While under the radar Democrats may be divided, Republicans may have a more open sore resulting from the treatment of Wolken. "Randy's with me now," Mahoney insists. But he has not been seen stumping loudly for her campaign. Another variable is the communities of color, where voter turnout traditionally has been low. Indeed the most dire prediction pundits are hazarding for this year's mayoral election is that it will record the lowest voter turnout in the city's history.

About halfway through the scheduled debates all three candidates agree there has been too much talk about Destiny. Driscoll says he's holding the developers to the original deal. Mahoney says they should make the deal already. Hawkins says fugitaboutit!

If they were handed magic wands to totally solve one, and only one, of the city's major ills, Mahoney would eliminate poverty, Driscoll would make the school system the best in the business and Hawkins would establish neighborhood assemblies for people to deal with all the rest of the city's problems.

And if they succumbed to campaign exhaustion, falling asleep on election night before the returns were in, to be awakened and told they had won, all three would know why.

"I'd say I knew I won because I listened to the feedback," says Hawkins.

"I'd say I knew I won because the people wanted change," says Mahoney.

"I'd say I knew I won," says Driscoll, "because I never went to sleep."

Posted by syracusegreens at October 26, 2005 12:31 PM