Conservative Party candidate Otis Jennings
Conservative Party candidate Otis Jennings has lost the Syracuse mayoral election to Democrat Stephanie Miner.
With all precincts reporting, Jennings had 10 percent of the vote, compared with 50 percent for Democrat Stephanie Miner and 39 percent for Republican Steve Kimatian, according to the unofficial vote count by the Onondaga County Board of Elections.
At his campaign headquarters on James Street, Jennings thanked the group of supporters that waited with him to watch the votes come in.
“Tonight is a positive night,” Jennings said in his concession speech. ”I wish we would have received more of the votes to win.”
Jennings pledged to work together with the next mayor to work on issues like economic development. “Politics is about the people, and not about any leader,” he said. ”I make a pledge to do as many positive things as I can.”
If he had won, Jennings would have been the first African American mayor of Syracuse and the first person to win on a third-party ticket since 1913.
Jennings had faced tough political realities in the election: Registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans in the city by a 3-to-1 margin. The Conservative Party has only 653 registered voters. Jennings was running on the Conservative Party line after he lost the Sept. 15 Republican primary to newcomer and former TV executive Kimatian.
At the polls on Tuesday, interviews with voters hinted at Jennings’ likely defeat.
At the Beauchamp Library on Salina Street in Syracuse, some voters indicated that they considered Jennings good person. But, they said, they didn’t consider him qualified to be mayor.
For Newhouse School professor Lawrence Mason, one candidate had a distinct advantage. He voted for Democrat Stephanie Miner. ’’I believe she was a former student,’’ Mason said. But, Mason added: “Otis Jennings was an interesting candidate. I came away thinking I would rather have him as a friend than as a mayor.’’
At Drumlins Country Club, one Jennings voter based her vote on personal experience with the candidate. Bridget Lawson recalled him visiting the Southwest Community Center, where she spent much of her childhood, when he was parks and recreation commissioner. Jennings’ experience in the city was another part of Lawson’s vote. ’’He has a history. He has been around. He knows what needs to happen,’’ Lawson said.
Back at Jennings’ campaign headquarters as the losing vote-count mounted, Jennings mingled among the crowd, smiling, shaking hands and accepting wishes of good luck from supporters.
’’I’m not worried,’’ Jennings said. ’’I know we ran the best campaign humanly possible.’’
At the end of evening, Jennings joked with the crowd of supporters. Of his own plans, Jennings said: ”I’m going to go home, hug my wife, snuggle with my wife.” He added,. ”It’s going to be a little weird and strange to be at home at night with my wife and kids.”
(Brian Amaral is a senior majoring in newspaper journalism.)
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