Longtime social activist. Familiar political figure. Author.
Those are at the top of Khalid Bey’s resume as he seeks the Common Council seat from District 4 in the November election. He’s pitching himself as the candidate most of the district’s residents will feel comfortable with.
“I’m a constant presence in the community,” said Bey.
Bey is the Democratic candidate in the Common Council District 4 race. His opponent is Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins, who has run unsuccessfully 18 times for public office. They are vying to succeed Democrat Tom Seals, who reached his term limit of eight years on the Common Council. District 4 includes the central portion of the city including the Downtown, Brighton, Southwest, University Hill and University neighborhoods.
The election is on Nov. 8.
Bey, 40, is a Syracuse native. He attended Corcoran High School before going to Virginia State University, where he received a degree in social work. He is pursuing a degree in psychology at Empire State College. He has written and published two books, with his own publishing company, Deyel Publishing.
Bey is a self-confessed TV addict. His “favorite thing” after work, he says, is sitting with the TV remote to flick through his movies and recordings. He has 44 episodes of “The Unit” recorded. “Law and Order”-type shows, he says, are his favorite. He has also watched the entire “Godfather” movie series several times.
In politics, he has worked for the re-election campaign of state Sen. David Valesky, D-Oneida, from the 49th Senate District. Bey also worked as a regional coordinator for the New York senate. He is a member of the Democrats’ 10th Ward committee in the city.
This is Bey’s third race for local office. In 2005, he ran for the District 4 seat against Tom Seals, who won, and against Steven Coker, who is now Bey’s communications director. In 2009, Bey also ran and lost in a bid for Common Councilor-at-Large.
His communications director, Coker, describes Bey as an eager worker for the Democratic party. “He does whatever’s asked of him. He’ll register voters, get signatures, and it adds up to folks getting elected,” Coker said.
As a social activist, Bey is on the board of the Faith and Hope Community Center and of Home HeadQuarters, a non-profit organization that creates housing for Central and Upstate New Yorkers. He also is a former president of the Syracuse Inner City Rotary Club and of the Southside Community Coalition, an organization that partners with Southside residents to improve the quality of life in that area. And he’s been a Pop Warner League football coach for the Syracuse Kirk Park Colts team.
In the District 4 race, Bey has a strong advantage in voter enrollment and with the traditional Democratic party against a third-party candidate in Hawkins of the Green Party. The District has 13,364 registered voters. Of those, 8,617 are Democrats; 1,190 are Republicans; 84 are Green Party.
Bey also benefits from the two-party system and voters’ familiarity with the traditional parties, said SU political scientist Andersen. “Our system favors the two lead parties,” said. In casting their votes, she added, “presumably people look at parties as one cue” for choosing their candidate.
In his campaign, Bey is running on four main goals: Education, support for small business, economic development to generate a better quality of life in the district.
On education, Bey says he wants to reform how teachers are trained. Teachers, he said, should have some background in social work, as well as education, to be able to help students focus in the classroom.
On support for small business, Bey says government needs to invest money in small businesses. This investment, he says, will bring more money back to the city in tax revenue.
His plans for economic development include bringing business back to the Salina Street Corridor and downtown area. He wants to see more business within these areas to bring up consumer spending, he said.
His campaign headquarters is in his mother’s fast-food style restaurant, Clunie’s Grab & Go on South Salina Street. The restaurant now is closed. But he spends hours there, Bey said, in organizing his campaign. Outside, two volunteers register voters.
If he wins, Bey said, he will maintain his deep connections to his constituents. “That’s the job,” said Bey. ‘Without connection to your constituents, you cannot effectively represent them and that’s really the bottom line.”
(Caitlin M. Francis is a graduate student in broadcast and digital journalism.)
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