Steve Kimatian wants to move from TV to City Hall in 2009 (Matt Cohen)
In 1980, Steve Kimatian, then a lawyer, lost the race for Maryland’s state legislature.
“It was tough losing. It was the type of campaign which was very street oriented. It was door to door, street by street, and voter by voter. It was direct contact, and a very hands-on approach to campaigning,” said Kimatian.
Twenty-nine years later, Steve Kimatian is running again — this time for Syracuse mayor. Kimatian, 67, is running as a Republican candidate. Kimatian was the fifth candidate to declare his candidacy for mayor in a race with no incumbents. Mayor Matt Driscoll cannot seek reelection to a third term because of term limits.
Otis Jennings, a former commissioner of the city’s parks and recreation department, won the nomination for the mayor’s office from the Onondaga County Republican Party on April 22. Kimatian has promised to challenge Jennings to a primary election for the nomination.
For the Democrats, Stephanie Miner, an at-large member of the Common Council, has won her party’s nomination. She also faces a primary challenge from Democrats Joe Nicoletti and Alfonso Davis.
The primary election is Sept. 15 and the general election is Nov. 3.
For Kimatian, the mayor’s race is a return to elective politics. Kimatian has not run for office since his unsuccessful attempt for the Maryland state legislature. This time around, he and others who know him well say, he brings to the Syracuse mayor’s race a deep understanding of the community from his years in broadcasting here, a reputation as a problem solver, and a plan to fix the economy and cultivate job growth, enforce a zero-tolerance on crime policy, and upgrade infrastructure.
Kimatian grew up on Long Island and attended Princeton University, where he got his bachelor’s degree in English. He received his law degree from Cornell University. Much of his career has been in broadcasting. From 1974-78 he was the general manager for WJZ-TV in Baltimore, Md. From 1979-1981, he was an attorney there with the law firm of Hooper Kiefer & Cornell, during which time he ran for office. From 1982-1986, he was president of Maryland Public Television.
In Syracuse, Kimatian recently stepped down as general counsel to Newport Television. He had oversight for all of Newport’s legal matters. Newport owns 56 television stations in 24 markets, including WSYR-TV NewsChannel 9. From 1998 to 2008, Kimatian hosted “With Steve On Sunday” on WSYR-TV. It was a weekly public-affairs show that focused on local issues. Before that, Kimatian ran television stations in Buffalo and Baltimore.
In the Syracuse mayor’s race, Kimatian calls himself a political outsider. But he argues that nothing could have prepared him to be mayor more than a career in television.
“In a way, the television business I’ve been in is not that different from politics. The whole idea in local broadcasting in particular is all about community. It’s all about bringing quality of life and community up, informing the community. In a way, that is what politics is about,” said Kimatian.
Theresa Underwood is now the vice-president of WSYR-TV NewsChannel 9. She has worked with Kimatian for close to 14 years. He can bring leadership and vision to the city, she says.
“He has an uncanny ability to listen and empower people so they can get the job done. He has incredible vision as well as extremely high expectations for himself,” said Underwood.
After losing in the Maryland legislature race in 1980, Kimatian has kept his distance from politics. He’s not donated money to candidates, he said. Candidates would give advertising money to the stations he managed, Kimatian said, and so it would have created a conflict of interest had he supported one. For his own fundraising for the mayor’s race, Kimatian has filed with the New York State Board of Elections, but as of late April had not reported any campaign contributions.
In conjunction with his career as a businessman, Kimatian says he prides himself on giving back to the community. He serves as vice-chairman of the Upstate Medical University Foundation and as a board member for the Everson Museum. He chaired the Upstate Foundation during the Golisano Children’s Hospital $20-million fundraising drive. He is a member of the United Way’s policy council for a children’s education program called “Success by 6.” In 2001, the Salvation Army gave Kimatian its Community Team Spirit Award.
Steven Kern, the director of the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, sees Kimatian’s passion for the people he lives with. “You can tell he cares deeply about the people in Syracuse, because he is so generous with his time. He is also a problem-solver and very process-oriented, and I can see that carrying over to the office of mayor,” said Kern. As examples, Kern points to Kimatian’s board membership and his leadership in getting new exhibits, expanding the museum, and creating ways to bring the community into the museum.
Kimatian does not hesitate to enlist his families help to run his campaign. His daughter, Ellen Kimatian Eagen, is an associate for Hiscock & Barclay, a law firm in downtown Syracuse. She is also the treasurer for the campaign. She vividly recalls his 1980 Maryland legislature campaign. He tried to knock on every person’s door, introduce himself, and get to know the people, she said. Now, she said, she expects the exact same thing.
“I know my dad is going to try and knock on almost every single door of Syracuse and he has said that is the plan. I don’t know how feasible that is but he will try his hardest. I just know he will be out till sunset on those summer nights, knocking on people’s doors, because that’s who he is,” said Eagen.
As an 11-year-old, Eagen remembers, she would put campaign signs on people’s lawns and go door to door asking them to vote for her father. “It got a little bit testy at times because people were taking down other people’s signs and our signs as well, so at night we would go out and put our signs back up,” said Eagen.
Kimatian faces an uphill climb now that the Onondaga County Republicans have declared Jennings, who ran for Common Council president in 2005, its nominee for the mayor’s race. Kristen Rounds is the Syracuse chair for the Onondaga County Republicans. Name recognition and Jennings’s experience played a big factor in Jennings getting the nomination, she said.
“A lot of committee people called me up and asked me, who is Steve Kimatian? Many felt that he just came out of the woodwork, and the committee people just feel a lot more comfortable with Otis,” said Rounds.
Many committee members suggested that Kimatian should get his feet wet in local politics before aiming for so high an office, said Rounds. That would allow him to become more familiar with the local political scene. Committee members feel that Kimatian is not in touch with the local processes yet, she said.
But Kimatian says that he loves a challenge and he sees this race as just that. He is very passionate about the city of Syracuse, he said, and sees it has the potential to be one of the great urban centers in the country. He plans on making it just that, he said, by marketing the city and the opportunities it provides to potential employers.
“I’m not running to do ordinary things. And I’m not going to settle for an average city,” said Kimatian. “Satisfactory is not satisfactory, and good enough is not good enough. We need to raise the bar.”
(Matt Cohen is a junior dual broadcast journalism and history major)
-30-
