After an aggressive campaign, Democrat Tom Buckel will join the Onondaga County legislature from District 7.
“We did an awful lot of campaigning,” Buckel said in a phone interview from his car enroute to Democratic headquarters Tuesday evening. “We think we had the right message. And we think we can do a lot for the neighborhood.”
With 100 percent of the vote counted, Buckel, the challenger, beat incumbent Republican James DiBlasi by 14 percentage points to represent the 7th District. The district spans the northside of Syracuse and the Lyncourt neighborhoods of Salina.
Buckel received 57 percent of the vote, and DiBlasi received 43 percent, according to News10Now. The unofficial vote totals were 2,929 for Buckel and 2,238 for DiBlasi.
With Buckel’s win, DiBlasi lost his race for his fifth term. In the past, he was the only Republican county legislator in the city.
Tuesday’s results were the fruits of Buckel’s aggressive grassroots campaigning against DiBlasi. Since February, Buckel has been knocking on doors and attending local meetings to generate support and challenge DiBlasi.
Buckel was endorsed by the The Post-Standard as well as the Working Families Party and the Veterans Party.
This campaign was Buckel’s second foray into politics. He ran unsuccessfully for Congress more than 20 years ago. This time, he ran with goals of government consolidation, local economic revitalization and targeting crime through stricter local ordinances, among others.
At the polls on Tuesday, conversations with voters hinted that many voters stuck to party lines in the 7th District election.
At the polling place at Loretto Sedgwick Retirement Community on James Street, Tom Magnarelli, 22, expressed a special interest in voting on Tuesday. His uncle, Bill Magnarelli was on the ballot for county executive, so Tom Magnarellis stopped by the polls on his way to grab lunch. Later, he would help out with his uncle’s campaign for the rest of the day.
He voted for Buckel mainly because he was the Democratic candidate. “I voted down the party line,” Tom Magnarelli said, “because I didn’t do enough research on all of the candidates.”
Also at Loretto Sedgwick, 7th District resident Kathy Hanley-Burns exited the polling place with her 4-year-old son, Max, in tow. Hanley-Burns, a Republican, was torn between Buckel and DiBlasi. She thought they were both good candidates, she said. In the end, she stuck with Republican DiBlasi to “keep things more equal.” Said Hanley-Burns: “I didn’t want all Democrats in the legislature.”
A few miles away at McChesney Park Recreation Center, Tom Costello, 77, and his wife Alice Costello, 76, both registered Democrats, went to the polling place together as they said they usually do. Both voted straight down the Democratic line.
Tom Costello recalled receiving a few phone calls from Buckel’s campaign, but said he didn’t know much about him other than his party registration.“I just vote for Democrats,” said Costello, who lives near Grant Boulevard. “Always have.”
Alice Costello was impressed by Buckel’s determination.“I think he has probably gone the distance,” she said. “He’s made himself better known than others have in the past.”
On Tuesday night, Buckel described the election process as “nerve-wracking” and expressed thanks to his supporters. “It’s out of your control,” he said. “You put your fate in other people’s hands and its up to them.”
(Melanie Hicken is a junior newspaper major.)
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