1) Joe Nicoletti is using allies with extensive feminist credibility to attack Stephanie Miner in nasty sexist terms. In Council President Bea Gonzalez’s endorsement she stated:
“We’ve all seen Councilor Miner in her public persona and I’m looking for leadership that is more even tempered and has a sense of fairness that I have not always seen in my colleague.”
When Assemblywoman Joan Christensen endorsed Nicoletti, she stated:
“Joe has the ability to cooperate, he’s not an obstacle to progress.”
A not so subtle and traditional attack on female political candidates: men have strong opinions and are forceful and decisive. Women are just nasty bitches. Gonzalez and Christensen should feel guilty for stooping to such a low level. Of course, this pair’s real comeuppance will arrive when they will be unable to truly celebrate the election of the city’s first female Mayor.
2) The fundraising totals for the candidates, just shy of two months away from the primaries, shows the field to be narrowing quite substantially. The five Democrats are now really two and the two Republicans are really one.
Nicoletti ($224,889) and Miner ($306,702) have both raised significant amounts of money, largely from the constituencies that back them–Miner from small fundraisers, unions and lawyers, Nicoletti from older pols and business interests.
Tom O’Hara couldn’t get enough petition signatures and has dropped out of the Democratic primary and threatens to run as an irrelevant . . . uh, I mean independent. Alphonso Davis and Carmen Harlow gathered enough signatures, but both candidates have raised little more than pocket change (less than $5,000 for Davis, less than $2,000 for Harlow.) Their vanity campaigns end on primary day.
As for the Republicans, Steve Kimatian is really in trouble (or else is really lazy.) He’s only raised $70,000 and $50,000 of that came out of his own bank account. Does he believe that his little watched Sunday morning TV chat show will give him enough name recognition?
Otis Jennings is raising a decent amount of money–and the paper’s news story focuses on his donors–largely evangelical and suburban. While other candidates would suffer from that kind of support base, Otis is innoculated from this.
As a Republican, overt religious support isn’t frowned upon. As the first serious African-American candidate for Mayor, charges of suburban co-optation don’t ring true. Otis will be a strong candidate against either Democrat, but is ultimately doomed in a town with a 3-1 enrollment advantage for the D’s over the R’s.
Still Racing In The Street 
Thanks for the thoughts. Do you think a lot of African American D’s might think of voting R this time around?
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I think more African-American’s will vote for Otis than for either of the two likely Democratic candidates–and why not? He’s a legitimate candidate and was a positive force during his time as Parks Commissioner.
I prefer Stephanie and have even done volunteer work for her. She understands the issues and is the only candidate that will refuse to cozy up to the development establishment (the Treehouse gang.)
One interesting bit of info in the P-S money article: Otis attends church out in Clay? As Parks Commish he was quite vocal about being a proud member of Central Baptist on Midland Ave.
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Forgot to finish my point on African-American voting in Syracuse. Even if Otis wins a majority of this demographic, African-Americans are about 25% of the city’s population and unfortunately probably make up less than that when the overall voting totals are determined.
I do not believe that the African American vote will determine the outcome.
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