Seven Up! Seven Up!

Syracuse New Times
Ed Griffen-Nolan
2009 October 11th

http://www.syracusenewtimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3647&Itemid=147

Of eight up-for-grabs Common Council races, only Van Robinson knows he’ll win

It’s been a quiet race for Syracuse Common Council. Although the attention given to the race for mayor of Syracuse has overshadowed it, there may be serious change coming in the composition of the city’s legislative body on Nov. 3. The impact of third parties on two district races make this year particularly interesting for observers of City Hall.

The Common Council has faced crucial decisions in recent years, most notably the tax benefits conceded to the Pyramid Companies’ expansion of Carousel Center, and the wrangling over construction of city schools in conjunction with the Joint Schools Construction Board.

Since 1960 the council has been composed of four at-large members and five district councilors. District councilors must run every two years, while councilors-at-large get to hold their citywide office for four years. Since term limits were enacted in 1985, no councilor is permitted to stay in the same seat for more than eight years. The same rule applies to the office of council president.

Current Council President Bethaida Gonzalez, who is term-limited this year, initially announced her candidacy for mayor on Oct. 20, 2008, but her campaign lasted a few short weeks before family issues caused her to drop out. Gonzalez was the favorite of many in the African-American and Latino communities. After ending her own race she endorsed Joe Nicoletti, who lost the Sept. 15 primary to Stephanie Miner. The results of the primary demonstrated that the communities of color divided their votes among all four Democratic candidates, Miner, Nicoletti, Alfonso Davis and Carmen Harlow.

Councilor-at-Large Van Robinson, who initially supported Nicoletti but was quick to endorse Stephanie Miner after the primary, is a shoo-in to replace Gonzalez in the largely ceremonial role of Common Council president—the president only votes in case of a tie. Robinson is running unopposed.

Bill Ryan and Kathleen Joy, whose terms do not expire until 2011, are the only at-large councilors certain to be back next year. The two other at-large seats, being vacated by Robinson and Miner, are being contested by three candidates.

One comes from television, one from the radio, and the third hails from the fire department. Former WSYR-Channel 9 reporter Jean Kessner, a Democrat, is seen as a front-runner by many due to name recognition alone. The other Democrat is 5th District Councilor and former Deputy Fire Chief Lance Denno. The third candidate is the only Republican in the race, former Spanish Action League Executive Director Fanny Villareal. Villareal, who also hosted a Spanish-language radio show, Nosotros, on WVOA-FM 103.9 would be the first Latino voting member of the council should she be elected.

Villareal would appear to be the underdog in a citywide race in which Democrats hold more than a 3-1 advantage in registrations over Republicans (52 percent compared to 17 percent). There are currently more unaffiliated voters in the city (18,628) than there are Republicans (14,086), according to Board of Elections figures compiled just before the primary. Yet Villareal has campaigned energetically and isn’t being counted out by anyone. Even Robinson, who thinks the Dems will win both seats, notes that Villareal “has that uncanny knack for making people like her.”

Uncommon Council
Two sitting councilors, Ryan McMahon in the 3rd District, and Pat Hogan in the 2nd, are believed to be holding comfortable leads. Hogan has no opponent on the ballot, and McMahon, the council’s lone Republican, faces a long shot in former Commissioner of Education Dorothy Matthews, the Democratic candidate.

The 5th District seat being vacated by Denno, who is running at-large, is considered a safe Democratic seat, even more so this year since Democratic candidate Nader Maroun holds the Working Families line. Maroun’s Republican opponent, Tristan Daedalus, is also running on the Conservative line. The 5th District, which covers the northeastern edge of the city, has the lowest percentage of registered Republicans of any part of town, a mere 17 percent.

The 1st District, which represents much of the North Side, Sedgwick and Eastwood, where the Republicans have their highest registration (23 percent) is also the district where they may have their greatest hopes for picking up a seat. It’s not because of the numbers, but due to the generous gift of the incumbent, Democrat Michael Heagerty, who lost his own party’s line on the ballot by failing to get the requisite number of signatures on his nominating petition.

Heagerty missed the magic number of 335 signatures by exactly one—his—and his total dropped to 334 after his Republican opponent Matt Rayo successfully challenged the petitions. More than a few insiders suspect that the party’s failure to double check the petitions was payback for his support of Nicoletti in defiance of the selection of Miner for mayor.

Rayo, a Christian Brothers Academy alum who graduated from the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in 2008, seized the moment. “I saw that he {Heagerty} had just 64 signatures more than he needed,” Rayo told The New Times in a telephone interview. “I took a look at one page of his petition and I could tell right away that there were eight signatures from addresses that weren’t in the district. So I challenged.” The end result is that Heagerty’s name will appear on the ballot once, on the Working Families line.

“I think I’ve got a really good shot,” says the 23-year-old Rayo. “I’ve raised more money than I thought I would. Most of my time is spent focusing on going door to door.”

Rayo has worked on the campaigns of GOP Congressman Jim Walsh and County Executive candidate Dale Sweetland. He works Saturday nights at Wings, a restaurant that sells chicken wings, helps out his family business by working on property maintenance, and is a partner in a venture he calls his hobby: producing biodiesel from recycling the cooking oil from local restaurants.

Heagerty, a local legend on the entertainment scene since his days running Styleeen’s Rhythm Palace in Armory Square, owns and operates the Palace Theatre in Eastwood. Predictably, he minimizes the significance of losing the Democratic line. “I am the incumbent. I do have the name recognition. I don’t in any way want to diminish my opponent, who is a nice young man who lives up the block, but he has no name recognition and no history whatsoever.”

For his part Rayo insists that people he meets feel that Heagerty has not been doing his job. “I’m hearing that he’s not getting his job done. I’m running to be an active representative.”

Heagerty counters that Rayo doesn’t have the experience to handle the job. “I’ve been through the process of getting permits, getting variances, dealing with codes. I know how things work. He doesn’t own property and he doesn’t pay property taxes,” says Heagerty.

Working Force

For the Working Families Party, this may be a breakthrough year. If Heagerty can win on their line, according to local party chair Rick Oppedisano, it will give more clout to a small party that has only 584 enrolled voters in the city. No third-party candidate has won election to the Common Council, but then again no incumbent in memory has failed to win his party’s nomination by fumbling a petition drive.

Should Heagerty get by the little-known Rayo, who is also on the Conservative and Independence lines, he will have earned his second term on the Common Council, where he has been known as a wild card ever since voting to support the demolition of a historic building on East Genesee Street to allow for a new Ronald McDonald House. “People in my district bring up Ronald McDonald House as a positive,” says the ebullient Heagerty. “The public viewed it as something close to their hearts and something city government was going to rule against.”

If Rayo wins he will likely be the second Republican on the newly reconstituted Common Council. The biggest shift he would bring to City Hall is an antipathy toward government spending on private development projects. Heagerty has taken the position that Destiny USA cannot be allowed to fail, while Rayo says the city should adopt a hands-off stance. “If a private developer wants to do a project, they can go ahead,” Rayo says. “Secure the funding and get it done. I don’t see why taxpayers need to fund a private endeavor. I’d like to see it back on the tax rolls as soon as possible.”

Heagerty expresses relief that he wasn’t on the Common Council when the Destiny deal was approved in 2006, but he doesn’t think the city can back away from the big box on Interstate 81 now. “It’s gotta move forward; it can’t fail. I’m not suggesting that we start giving {Bob} Congel money, and I think it should be on the tax rolls before 15 years, but when you have the right tax deal with the right project, it’s the right move. We don’t just go out handing out money. But we have to spur on the economy.”

If Heagerty will have a tough time winning on the Working Families line, the climb will be even steeper for perennial Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins, who is challenging Democrat Tom Seals for the 4th District seat, which covers a good deal of the South Side and the Westcott Nation. The Greens have exactly 384 registered voters in the city, including Hawkins. “Howie may finally have found a race he can win,” says Alliance Network leader Walt Dixie, a South Side political organization.

Seals defeated Mike Atkins for the council seat in 2005 with the help of a Working Families Party enraged by Atkins’ failure to vote for the Living Wage ordinance. Ironically one of the earliest champions of a living wage was Hawkins, who complains that Seals has not done enough to enforce provisions of the ordinance, particularly as they apply to city garage and airport employees.

“Democrats started calling me and asking me to run right after the congressional race,” says Hawkins, who ran third behind Dan Maffei and Dale Sweetland in last year’s race to replace Jim Walsh. “Tom {Seals} has sorta been coasting.”

Seals did not return repeated calls from The New Times.

Robinson says that while he admires Hawkins, he doesn’t think he can take the seat from Seals. “Hawkins is looked upon by the community as a person of principles and integrity. He has the community at heart, but sheer numbers will tell you that he will not make it.” The Working Families Party apparently agrees, giving their nod to Seals over Hawkins.

Hawkins acknowledges that his biggest obstacle is “the rank-and-file Democrat who will vote Democrat no matter what. They buy into the myth that the Democrat stands for the little guy. People would vote for George Bush if he were on the Democratic line.”
One thing for sure, says Hawkins. “Whoever gets elected mayor, if I’m on the council, I’ll be a handful for ’em.”