Tom Seals won the 4th District primary with about 70 percent of the vote, according to Action News polling data.
Tom Seals should be used to primaries by now.
For the third time, Seals faces on Tuesday a Democratic primary challenger for his Syracuse Common Council seat from the 4th District. This time, his opponent is Charles Pierce-El, a community activist who works with troubled youth and is a strong advocate for economic development in the district.
With no Republican challenger, if Seals wins the primary, he will most likely win the general election as well. Seals did not respond to requests for interviews for this story.
The 4th District includes the Syracuse University area; the neighborhoods north, west and south of Thornden Park; and parts of the East and South sides.
This year, the 4th District is the only Common Council district to have a primary. That’s not unusal, said Diane Dwire, chairwoman of the Onondaga County Democratic Party.
“The 4th Ward has a history of people running for a primary,” Dwire said.
In 2003, Seals beat incumbent Mike Atkins in a forced primary to become a Common Councilor. In 2005, Seals found himself thrust into a three-way primary with Steve Coker, vice president of a local construction company, and Khalid Bey, a local business man. Seals received about 70 percent of the vote to keep his seat on the council for two more years.
Seals did not get the Democratic party’s endorsement in either previous primary. In 2003, the party supported incumbent Mike Atkins. In 2005, it snubbed Seals for Coker, a political newcomer.
In a change of pace this year, Seals won the Democratic endorsement. He is also running on the Independence and Working Families ticket. He will run in the general election under one of his other party designations if he loses to Pierce-El on Tuesday, Dwire of the Democratic party said.
Seals, like Pierce-El, is focusing on economic development as the cornerstone of his campaign, according to an article in Sunday’s Post-Standard. He wants to encourage businesses to invest in the city, he said. Like Pierce-El, he hopes a new supermarket will pave the way for more development, he said.
“People have been asking for that for years,” Seals told The Post-Standard.
“It just makes sense.”
He wants to continue the work he started in his first two terms, Seals told the newspaper.
In 2005, the council passed the Living Wage Law, which raises the pay for the employees of companies doing work in the city. Seals also wants to make sure schools in his district get more aid and are renovated, he said in The Post-Standard.
Pierce-El said he has chosen not to affiliate with another party. If he loses the primary, he said, he will not run in the general election.
“When the party gave him the endorsement over me, that was kind of a slap in the face,” Pierce-El said. “I chose not to get on another party line because I am a Democrat.”
In a phone interview, Pierce-El said he plans to focus on three main issues:
Economic development by bringing a grocery store and other businesses into the district.
A “youth job program” to teach young people valuable skills and keep them off the streets.
Basic quality-of-life issues by fixing up roads and sidewalks and cracking down on violence and crime.
Despite the contest in the primary, Jeffrey Stonecash, a political science professor at Syracuse University, predicted voter turnout will likely be very low. He’d be surprised if 25 percent of registered Democrats voted, he said.
In the Common Council’s 3rd District, voters have the option to write in a candidate in the primary. The Onondaga County Board of Elections Web site shows the write-in possibility.
But very few people bother with write-in candidates, said Stonecash.
“It’s really unusual and hard,” Stonecash said, “for someone to get anywhere with a write-in.”
(Andrew Restuccia is a senior newspaper and religion and society major)
-30-
