When Republican voters in Syracuse head to the polls on Election Day, they won’t have an eager Republican mayoral candidate to vote for.
As of Sept. 22, lawyer Kevin Kuehner was – reluctantly – on the GOP’s ballot line. But he is expected to drop off. And the party has no other candidate.
“The Republican Party will not field a candidate for mayor of the city of Syracuse for this fall’s election,” said Tom Dadey, chairman of the Onondaga County Republican Committee.
Tom Dadey, chairman of the Onondaga County Republican Committee. Photo by John Tummino
Dadey’s announcement on Sept. 16 at the county GOP headquarters means for the first time in more than 100 years, Republicans will not have a mayoral candidate in Syracuse, according to Helen Kiggins Walsh, the GOP elections commissioner for Onondaga County.
That will leave voters to decide among the incumbent mayor, Democrat Stephanie Miner; Green Party candidate Kevin Bott; and Conservative candidate Ian Hunter at the Nov. 5 election. The winner will serve for a four-year term and be paid a salary of $115,000.
GOP chair Dadey defended his efforts to try and get a Republican on the ballot. “We gave it a yeoman’s effort to try and find a candidate,” Dadey said. “That’s why we went to the extraordinary lengths that we went to, to preserve our ballot line for as long as we could.”
These extraordinary lengths included multiple lawsuits, placeholder candidates with no intention of seriously campaigning, and talk of a Democrat running on the Republican Party line.
The first lawsuit came when Conservative mayoral candidate Ian Hunter amassed 572 signatures to run as a Republican, three more than the required 569. Party chair Dadey sued to kick Hunter off the ballot. And state Supreme Court Justice Donald Greenwood declared five of the signatures invalid, so Hunter was no longer eligible to be on the Republican ballot.
But to hold the ballot line, the GOP put up its reluctant placeholder, Kuehner. That prompted Democrats to file the race’s second lawsuit because Kuehner admittedly never had any intention of running. On Sept. 11, state Supreme Court Judge Hugh Gilbert threw out the Democrats’ lawsuit, allowing the Republicans to keep Kuehner on the ballot.
Now, Kuehner can only be removed from the ballot by dying, accepting a nomination for a judgeship or changing his party enrollment.
Kuehner did not return multiple calls to his office and home phone for this story.
As for talk of a Democrat running for the Republicans, the name frequently mentioned — even by Republicans — was Democratic Common Councilor Pat Hogan. Hogan had challenged Mayor Miner for the Democratic nomination. But Hogan lost in the Sept. 10 primary, gathering 1,936 votes to Miner’s 3,651.
GOP chair Dadey downplayed the party’s interest in Hogan as its candidate. “We had a chat in early July where we talked about the future of the city,” Dadey said. “Ultimately, Pat and I have not discussed him running for our line.”
Dadey admitted he had approached two fellow Syracuse Republicans — state Sen. John DeFrancisco and county legislature chair Ryan McMahon — about accepting the nomination. Both declined.
But the GOP’s absence from the mayoral isn’t surprising, according to political experts. Rather, the lack of Republicans’ interest in challenging Miner may stem from the increasingly hostile nature of political campaigns, political experts say.
“It’s not ‘Do I want this job?’ It’s ‘Do I want to go through what it takes to get this job?’,” said Grant Reeher, a political scientist and director of the Campbell Public Affairs Institute at Syracuse University. “And they’re deciding that they don’t — especially when the incumbent is a pretty strong incumbent.” He added, “I wouldn’t conclude too much about the Republican Party on the basis of this.”
A pretty strong incumbent is exactly how GOP chair Dadey characterized Mayor Miner. “Stephanie Miner is a well-funded incumbent,” Dadey said. “She has an enrollment advantage. She has hundreds of thousands of dollars at her disposal — and she is the incumbent.”
The enrollment advantage is staggering. Of the city’s 70,696 total registered voters, 38,799 are Democrats, compared to a mere 11,362 Republicans.
By not running a campaign for a mayoral candidate, Dadey said, the Republican Party will instead focus on grooming young candidates for the future. “We’re going to focus our efforts on races we can win,” said Dadey, “and hopefully elect those folks so we have a bench coming down the road for future elections.”
(John Tummino is a junior with dual majors in broadcast and digital journalism and political science.)
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