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Syracuse Mayoral Race 2017

Perez Williams, other mayoral candidates accept election loss to Ben Walsh

Kai Nguyen | Staff Photographer

Juanita Perez Williams, who came into Election Day nearly tied with Ben Walsh, lost by about 15 percent of the vote.

By Jordan MullerSenior Staff Writer

UPDATED: Wednesday, Nov. 8, at 12:25 a.m.

Juanita Perez Williams, the Democratic candidate who would have made history as the first Latina mayor in New York state, lost to independent Ben Walsh on Tuesday.

The Democrat received just over 38 percent of the vote.

A Sunday poll, which included 620 respondents, showed Perez Williams and Walsh nearly tied heading into Tuesday’s election. Perez Williams had a 7 percentage point lead over the independent in October.

Although the Democrat had never run for elected office before, she beat Joe Nicoletti, the party designee, in September’s primary.



Following Walsh’s victory, Perez Williams thanked her supporters in a speech at her election night watch party, held in downtown Syracuse at the Martin J. Rubenstein Museum of Science and Technology. Surrounded by her family, she made no mention of Walsh and did not officially concede the election.

“We have to move forward, and we have to stay proud,” Perez Williams said. About halfway through her speech, her supporters began chanting: “Juanita! Juanita!”

In the weeks before the election, Perez Williams received endorsements from prominent Democratic leaders, including New York state Gov. Andrew Cuomo, former Vice President Joe Biden and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).

Despite the high-profile endorsements and Democratic Party support, Perez Williams trailed Walsh in fundraising efforts throughout the race. In the most recent financial disclosures, Perez Williams’ campaign had about $50,000 in contributions left to spend — less than half of the money Walsh’s campaign had.

On the campaign trail, Perez Williams repeatedly attacked Walsh for the money he raised from developers. And in a debate Sunday night, Perez Williams and Republican candidate Laura Lavine accused Walsh’s campaign of launching a “whisper campaign” about Perez Williams’ temperament. Walsh denied there was a whisper campaign.

Before the polls closed Tuesday night, Perez Williams’ supporters who gathered at her watch party in downtown Syracuse said they were “apprehensive” about her chances of being elected. But many said they hoped she could pull off a victory.

The mood turned solemn at the watch party after about half the ballots were counted, when Walsh pulled ahead. Many stared at the election results projected on the wall in silence as music played in the background.

Perez Williams, a Navy veteran and former attorney, was quick on the campaign trail to cite her Latina heritage and childhood in poverty — a story she said “resonated” with Syracuse residents.

Bill McClellan, who worked on Perez Williams’ campaign, said her personal traits and professional qualifications made her the best person for mayor.

“Unfortunately … that’s what was defeated,” he said.

The grandchild of Mexican immigrants, Perez Williams grew up in Southern California. After college, she served as an attorney in the Navy before taking a job as the regional director of the New York State Education Department.

She also worked at Syracuse University as associate dean of students, but left her position in 2008. Perez Williams in an interview declined to comment on the end of her career at SU, but then-Chancellor Nancy Cantor said in 2012 Perez Williams and other student affairs administrators were fired after the university received complaints about the student affairs office. Other SU administrators said they believed Perez Williams was let go in retaliation for her involvement in a sexual assault judicial hearing that included three men’s basketball players.

She re-entered public service after leaving the university, taking jobs in the New York State Attorney General’s office, Syracuse City Hall and the New York State Department of Labor.

The Democrat launched her mayoral bid in March.

“The message of the working people didn’t prevail,” said Mark English, the Onondaga County Democratic Committee’s chairman, in a speech after Perez Williams’ loss.

Perez Williams on the campaign trail said she would prioritize the city’s poverty issues, fill the remaining police officer vacancies in the Syracuse Police Department and entertain the idea of a gun court where all gun crimes would be heard by a single judge.

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Kai Nguyen | Staff Photographer

Howie Hawkins, a Green Party candidate, and Lavine, the Republican candidate, conceded the election early Tuesday night.

Hawkins, who has unsuccessfully run for elected office more than 20 times, centered his campaign around lowering Syracuse’s high poverty rate.

“We didn’t get the results we wanted,” said Hawkins, standing in a corner of the Polish Home, a private club on the city’s Westside. Hawkins held a watch party there with other local Green Party candidates.

Lavine, a former superintendent of the LaFayette School District, focused on education policy throughout the race.

The Republican candidate, jabbing Walsh at debates, said she would ban “pay-to-play” politics. She proposed blocking elected officials from awarding contracts, grants, loans or tax breaks to campaign donors for two years.

“We know what the problems are, now we need to work on solutions. Let’s do what we can to help our new mayor to get Syracuse back on track and bring it back to life,” said Lavine, though, in a room at the Strada Mia restaurant on Syracuse’s Westside, as about 50 supporters cheered her on.

The Republican candidate only received 589 votes Tuesday night. Hawkins, meanwhile, received 970 votes, garnering just about 4 percent of the total electorate.

— Staff writers Catherine Leffert and Jessi Soporito contributed reporting to this article.





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