A political newcomer plans to challenge a one-term Republican incumbent for the District 1 Common Council seat in November.
The newcomer is Robert Marks, 58, a substance abuse counselor who has submitted a letter of interest in the District 1 seat to the Onondaga County Democrats. His bid for the office is complicated by his lack of at track record with the party. He is registered as an unaffiliated voter, instead of as a Democrat.
As of March 25, he is the only potential Democratic candidate to challenge incumbent Matt Rayo in the Nov. 8 election. The official Democratic candidate designation will be announced at the county committee meeting on May 15.
Rayo’s two-year term ends this fall. In District 1, Democrats outnumber Republicans almost two to one. Democrats have 6,740 registered voters to Republicans’ 3,450. But those odds did not stop Rayo, a Republican, from beating then-incumbent Democrat Michael Heagerty on a vote of 1,844 to 1,154 for the seat in 2009.
District 1 extends north of I-690 and includes the Northside, Washington Square, Lincoln Park and Near Northeast neighborhoods.
The Syracuse Common Council consists of a president, four at-large councilors and five district councilors. This November, six councilors are up for reelection. The District 4 seat is up for grabs because term limits mean its incumbent can’t run again. Alongside the mayor, the Common Council approves the city budget and reviews and votes on city laws.
Here are sketches of the District 1incumbent and his potential challenger:
Matt Rayo (Republican, incumbent)
Rayo, 24, is the youngest common councilor.
But he says his age has not affected his job performance. “I don’t know if I’d say it’s good or bad,” he says. “It is what it is. I’m there. People know that I’m there to work.”
His favorite accomplishment in office, he said, was “a little thing.” After hearing a request from a neighborhood association, he got an exit sign on I-690 changed so it designates the Hawley-Green neighborhood with its own arrow.
“Ever since then, I was hooked,” he says. “Any time I could help someone or a group with something, I’ve tried to do that.”
If reelected, he says, he would set a new priority: making city government more modern and efficient.
“There’s a lot of cases where, in various departments, the technology,” he says, “is years or more behind” that of similar-sized city governments. For example, he would like to see the city buy equipment to record and broadcast all council meetings live over the Internet.
Rayo, a lifelong Syracuse resident, was elected the same year he graduated from SUNY-ESF with a degree in environmental biology. In addition to serving on the Common Council, he has been working for three years to start a biodiesel production company.
He also works part-time at Wings restaurant and manages some of his family’s rental properties.
He lives on Brattle Road.
Robert Marks (No party affiliation, seeking the Democratic designation)
Marks, 58, is a counselor who hopes to become a councilor.
He is a first-generation American whose ancestors emigrated from Ireland. Originally from the Bronx, Marks has lived in Syracuse for 22 years.
He decided to run for Common Council, he said, because he would like to address the crime problem in his neighborhood. Societal pressures often contribute to criminal behavior, he said.
“The general status of our economy right now is what makes people do things they wouldn’t normally do,” he says.
As a substance abuse counselor, he works with tenants at Welch Terrace, a low-income housing complex. Through the job, he interacts with people from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds and with state and county government officials.
“So, I know how the process works,” he says.
If he were elected, he says, he would try to create a stronger city outreach program to assist the growing number of immigrants in his neighborhood. “They’re very hard workers,” he says.
Most of his neighbors, he said, know him as the man who is always outside tending to his yard. “If you take a ride over to the house, you’ll see I love gardening,” he says.
Marks and his wife, Rosalina, live on Wendell Terrace. He has two adult children: Ashley, 25, and Robert John, 30, who both grew up in Syracuse.
(Jessica Palombo is a graduate student in broadcast and digital journalism.)
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