Joanie Mahoney, William Fitzpatrick, Robert Antonacci
Voters won’t have a choice for Onondaga County’s top three elected positions on the November ballot.
County Executive Joanie Mahoney, District Attorney William Fitzpatrick and Robert Antonacci, the comptroller — all Republican incumbents— are unopposed for re-election.
The election is Nov. 8.
No opponents makes election season easy for candidates, said Kristi Andersen, a Syracuse University political scientist. But voters can benefit from choices, she said.
“You think that democracy, a healthy democracy, requires that people be given choices. So then it’s less healthy with fewer contested elections,” she said. With fewer choices, voters and the news media have less opportunity to question candidates and their agendas, she said, because uncontested contenders don’t campaign as fiercely.
Voters will also feel like they won’t have to show up to the polls, as the choice for the positions are already made for them, Andersen added.
Democrats outnumber Republicans in voter registration in the county.
As of April 1, 2011, Onondaga County had 272,765 registered voters. Of those, 99,761 or 36.6 percent, are registered Democrats. Registered Republicans make up 87,062, or 31.9 percent, according to the New York State Board of Elections website.
But the incumbent Republicans are widely seen as successful and popular with voters, SU’s Andersen said. And that could discourage potential Democratic challengers, she said.
“People don’t want to run if they have to spend a lot of time and energy and money, perhaps, on a race that’s doomed,” Andersen said.
The Onondaga County Democratic Committee did not respond to four requests for comment about the party’s lack of candidates for the top three county offices.
Here are sketches of the unopposed incumbents:
Joanie Mahoney (County Executive, Republican)
SU political analyst Andersen usually pairs the name Mahoney with Miner. That is, Mayor Stephanie Miner. A Democrat.
“Mahoney and Miner have just been successful,” she said. “They work together really well.”
Mahoney’s work with elected officials, even those across party lines, is likely to continue, Andersen said.
The county executive appoints administrative and department heads and supervises the executive branch of the county government. The position pays $122,413 a year.
Mahoney was elected in 2007, making her the first woman to hold the county’s top job. In 2005, she narrowly lost the 2005 mayoral race to then-incumbent Matt Driscoll, a Democrat. From 2000 to 2002, Mahoney was a Syracuse Common Councilor.
Mahoney graduated with two degrees from SU: one from the Whitman School of Management, the other from the College of Law. She’s a wife and mother of four.
Nearing the end of the year, Mahoney exercises one of her bigger responsibilities: proposing the annual county budget.
In her most recent budget, released Sept. 14, Mahoney proposed tax rate cuts for 53 percent of the county population. But she is under fire for asking for property tax raises in some areas. For example, the town of Clay will see nearly a $100 property tax increase next year, according to The Post-Standard.
Mahoney was unavailable for interviews.
Mahoney has won praise for improving relations between the county and Democratic-led city government.
The fact that Mahoney would reach across party lines makes her a challenging candidate for Democrats to go up against, SU political scientist Andersen said.
“I think she has done, by most peoples’ accounts, a very good job,” Andersen said.
William Fitzpatrick (District Attorney, Republican)
Fitzpatrick is seeking his sixth term as the county’s top law-enforcement officer. This is the fourth time he has been without an opponent.
With his re-election, Fitzpatrick said, he hopes to continue his working relationship with local authorities and make sure convicted criminals do not become repeat offenders.
For the upcoming term, Fitzpatrick plans to integrate the district attorney’s office more closely with police. He wants to work with the McMahon/Ryan Child Advocacy Site, an organization that aims to prevent child abuse with intervention and education, according to the group’ss website.
One of the bigger issues Fitzpatrick plans to tackle is to decrease the number of repeat offenders. More than 50 percent of those who finish a sentence go behind bars again in the state, he said. He praised the county’s programs that help those released from jail to get more help returning to the community.
“We’re the first county in the state outside of Brooklyn to offer drug addicts court-mandated therapy,” he said. “We want to give parolees who are put back in the community more help.”
Fitzpatrick, 55, lives in Lafayette with his wife and three children. He graduated from Syracuse University’s law school in 1976. He started his career in the District Attorney’s office as a law clerk.
In 1991, Fitzpatrick ran for district attorney unopposed. Several people announced to run previously, he said, but didn’t make it on the ballot. He ran uncontested in ’95 and ’99 as well, but beat out opponents in 2003 and 2007.
The district attorney decides whether to prosecute those charged with crimes. He also interviews people for background information for some serious cases in the county. Fitzpatrick also takes on a few cases over the year as lead prosecutor. The district attorney position pays $160,000.
His job is multi-faceted, Fitzpatrick said, and doesn’t go through the paces of a regular day-to-day job. “That’s a beautiful part of this job,” he said. “There’s no such thing.”
Robert Antonacci (Comptroller, Republican)
Rober Antonacci was inspired to get into politics because of another unopposed candidate.
In 2003, he recalled, he came across a newspaper article detailing the lack of opposition for races at the top of the ballot, including then-comptroller Donald Colon.
“I got hit with a bit of, I guess you could call it civic duty, and I decided to run for the comptroller,” he said. Antonacci lost that first race. In 2007, he tried again and won against Democrat Richard Brickwedde.
In his next term, he said, he plans to continue his office’s transparency on county spending to and build up an office that recently overcame staff cuts.
The comptroller oversees the county’s financial records and audits the departments and agencies under Onondaga County’s jurisdiction. The comptroller position pays $87,160. Antonacci has asked County Executive Mahoney for a $12,640 raise for next year, The Post-Standard reported. Antonacci had also asked for a raise for the 2011 budget. That request was too late — the deadline for any budget changes had passed.
Antonacci, 46, is a “life-long” resident of the area. He got a degree in accounting at Le Moyne College, and a J.D. from SU. He lives in Salina with his wife and two children. Before getting into politics, he was a certified public accountant for about 20 years.
To increase his office’s transparency about public spending, Antonacci launched a website, Project Sunshine, where citizens can check on funds the county has spent. He has won funding for a special auditor whose office will be called CSI Onondaga: The acronym stands for consolidation, shared service and integration. The office is to help promote consolidation of shared services with other local governments, according to Antonnaci, and help reduce the tax burden on county residents.
On staffing, Antonacci said, the comptroller’s office is recovering from budget cuts. In the past four years, the office had lost six positions. Recently he’s hired two auditors. “I’ve been able to make cuts with my departmental staffing, but now it’s time to rebuild,” he said.
He wants to continue bipartisanship in his office’s work, he said. “I represent all taxpayers. It doesn’t matter if they’re Democrats or Republicans,” he said. “They want us to be as frugal and efficient as possible.”
(Sara Tracey is a senior majoring in newspaper journalism.)
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