Voters so far have only one choice for county executive in Onondaga County: incumbent Republican Joanie Mahoney.
As she seeks her second term, Mahoney says she will mainly focus on creating jobs in the county. “We can do a lot to affect the quality of life,” said Mahoney in a phone interview. “But unless people have a way to support themselves, they won’t be able to stay here.”
As of April 1st, no challenger had stepped forward to oppose Mahoney for the county executive seat. The Republican and Democratic parties will officially designate their candidates in May. The general election is Nov. 8.
Tom Dadey, the new chairman of the county Republican Committee, says he does not expect Mahoney to face a challenge in 2011 for the Republican nomination. “I am confident that Joanie will be re-elected in November,” said Dadey. “She’s very popular, and she’s doing a great job.”
The office of county executive is the top county government position. Mahoney was elected in 2007.
Mahoney is the first woman to hold the office — and one of three women to break the gender glass-ceiling in local politics for the top local elected offices. The others are Mayor Stephanie Miner, a Democrat, and U.S. Rep. Ann Marie Burkle, R-Onondaga Hill.
As county executive, Mahoney has reached across party lines to build coalitions. She has close relations with Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Miner, both Democrats. She supported Cuomo in the gubernatorial elections in November 2010 and served on his transition team.
Of her re-election bid, Mahoney says she wants to build Onondaga County into a community, where her children can “continue to live, get a good job, and thrive.” She is asking voters, she said, for an opportunity to tackle what she calls “unfinished businesses.”
“We have 50 projects planned for this year,” said Mahoney. “Some of them are on-going ones to clean up Onondaga lake and renovate Hotel Syracuse.”
(Kelly Kim is a senior with dual majors in broadcast journalism and international relations.)
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“We can do a lot to affect the quality of life. But unless people have a way to support themselves, they can’t stay here. There has to be good jobs first and foremost, and then we can talk about other things that can make the county a community, where people choose to live. I happen to think that we do a lot of things right on the quality of life issues. And we have to all come together and focus on job creations; something that we can’t do alone at the county level because we are affected greatly by what happens at the state level. But this job as the county executive affords me the ability to work with the state to illustrate to them the things that they can be doing to lower our cost here.” (Joanie Mahoney, county executive)
