The Common Council is the legislative body of the City of Ithaca and plays an important role in the lives of Ithaca’s residents. Its decisions can impact issues such as housing, taxes, climate change, and more. While the general election for Common Council isn’t until November 7, in a city such as Ithaca, in which Democrats make up the vast majority of both voters and elected officials, the Democratic primaries determine a lot about the city’s future. The Democratic primaries took place on June 27 this year, with five contested races for Common Council. There were no Republican primaries, as there were no contested Republican candidates.
The city of Ithaca is divided into five newly redistricted wards. Each of these wards is represented by two Alderpersons on the Common Council. One of these seats is for a two-year-term, the other for a four-year-term. All seats on the Common Council are up for election this year, but some seats only had one Democratic candidate running for them. Democrats Pierre Saint-Perez as well as current Alderpersons Phoebe Brown, Duscon Nguyen, Jorge DeFendini and Tiffany Kumar will continue on to the general election—if contested by a candidate from another party—without a primary. The winners of the Democratic primaries were Kayla Matos, Alderperson Kris Haines-Sharp, David Shapiro, Clyde Lederman, and Margaret (Margherita) J. Fabrizio.
In Ward 1, Kayla Matos defeated Alderperson Cynthia Brock in a race for the four-year-seat on the Common Council, with the candidates garnering 387 and 301 votes, respectively. Kayla Matos is running on the Solidarity Slate platform along with Alderperson Phoebe Brown, Alderperson Jorge DeFendini, West Fox and Nathan Sitaraman, all of whom have been endorsed by the New York Working Families Party, the Ithaca Tenants Union, the Ithaca Democratic Socialists of America, Workers United, and Sunrise Ithaca. According to the Solidarity Slate’s website, Matos “is a lifelong Ithacan and the Deputy Director of Southside Community Center. Her campaign is focused on stopping gentrification and displacement, and investing in local organizations that are already working to address issues in the community.” Other issues addressed by the Solidarity Slate platform include making Cornell pay more to the City, justice for workers and Black, Brown and LGBTQ+ people, and increasing the quality of affordable housing. Her opponent Cynthia Brock has served on the Common Council for twelve years. Brock’s campaign has been focused on a variety of issues, including FEMA flood maps, road maintenance, public safety, housing/homelessness, and public workers. She told The Tattler, “In order for our City to be resilient and responsive [we] must address our aging infrastructure and departmental needs. Of equal importance and priority are the needs of our residents, community members, and the economic vitality at-large. The most tangible measure of our community’s success is how we support our most socially and economically vulnerable.”
Primaries determine who can run on a certain line, or party platform, but candidates can come back under a different line in the general election. For example, though Cynthia Brock lost the Democratic primaries, and will thus not be on the general election ballot on the Democratic line, she will face off against Kayla Matos again on the independent Ithacans for Progress line in November.
In Ward 2, Alderperson Kris Haines-Sharp won the race for the two-year-term on the Common Council with 324 votes. Her opponents West Fox and Aryeal Jackson received 265 and 152 votes, respectively. According to her website, Haines-Sharp is a former teacher and school administrator who is currently an Alderperson, having been nominated unanimously by the Common Council to fill a vacancy. She is a voting member and Council liaison to the Greater Ithaca Activities Center (GIAC), and serves on both the Program Oversight Committee of the Community Housing Development Fund and the board of the Ithaca Community Gardens. She also chairs the Diversity and Inclusion Committee for the Finger Lakes Running Club. She told The Tattler, “I will prioritize the Ithaca Green New Deal with climate justice at the forefront. I will prioritize responsiveness to constituents, navigating the shifts ahead in city government with the creation of a city manager, accessibility and affordability, and housing that meets the needs of all.” Other issues centered in her campaign include investing in Ithaca’s infrastructure and workforce, public safety, public health and equity. Her opponent, West Fox, is running on the Solidarity Slate platform. According to the Slate’s website, they are “a philosopher, artist, and civic organizer” who “unabashedly fights for the rights of transgender, queer, low-income, disabled, and otherwise marginalized communities.” Their top priorities include housing affordability and a housing first approach to homelessness, infrastructure, and flood mitigation, and reimagining public safety. Haines-Sharp’s other opponent, Aryeal Jackson, has served as the chair of Ithaca’s Public Safety and Information Commission and worked as a project manager, communications strategist, and journalist. Jackson’s top issues include housing, the Green New Deal, and public safety.
In Ward 3, non-profit leader David Shapiro defeated postdoctoral researcher and Solidarity Slate candidate Nathan Sitaraman in a close race for the four-year-term. David Shapiro received 282 votes against Nathan Sitaraman’s 276. Shapiro’s campaign is focused on housing affordability, public safety and
increasing zoning. Sitaraman’s campaign is focused on increasing Cornell’s financial contributions to the city, in addition to the rest of the Solidarity Slate’s platform.
In Ward 5, there were two very close and very similar elections, one for the two-year-term and one for the four-year-term. Clyde Lederman won the race for the two-year-term with 94 votes against Jason Houghton who received 84 votes. Lederman is an undergraduate student at Cornell and is endorsed by the New York Working Families Party, Bangs Ambulance Workers, County Legislator Veronica Pillar, former Mayor of Ithaca Alan Cohen, and former Congressman Mondaire Jones. He serves as an administrative assistant for the Cornell Prison Education Program and as a legislative clerk. His priorities include increasing housing affordability, flood mitigation, public safety, transportation and making Cornell contribute more to the city financially. His opponent Jason Houghton works as a software developer and consultant and prioritizes fully staffing and fairly paying municipal departments, increasing affordability and fiscal reliance, investment in infrastructure, transparent governance, and community engagement. In the race for the four-year term Margaret Fabrizio, who is retired from working at Cornell, won while sharing a platform and priorities with Jason Houghton. She received 90 votes, while her opponent Michelle Song received 84. Fabrizio told The Tattler, “Better engaging residents, fostering neighborhood connectivity, developing a city-wide neighborhood association, and ensuring government operations are transparent and well-communicated to all residents are top priorities for me. Increasing public engagement is key to a visionary, sustainable, livable, welcoming community.” Making Cornell pay more to the city is another priority of hers, as she wrote in an Ithaca Times opinion piece “Cornell’s Tax Exempt Status and Ithaca’s Bottom Line.” Song shares a platform and priorities with Clyde Lederman and is endorsed by the New York Working Families Party, Eleanor’s Legacy and Cornell Dems. She told The Tattler, “I started this campaign with the belief that we needed to put people and planet over profit by building bridges, not walls. That we needed to come together as a community to combat Ithaca’s most pertinent issues. Each vote for me demonstrated that I can unite students and lifelong Ithacans, and in reality, that we all share more in common than we thought.”
These results don’t guarantee who will be sitting on the Common Council come 2024, but they say a lot about the priorities of Ithaca’s voters and the future of our city. The issues of housing, public safety, Cornell’s contributions to the City and the Green New Deal are front and center in many Ithacans’ minds and we will likely see significant change to the make-up of the Common Council in the coming months.