Syracuse University alumna Joanie Mahoney was elected on Tuesday for her third term as Onondaga County executive.

Mahoney (R-I) received 59.7 percent of the vote — 40,897 votes total — as of 11:10 p.m. on Tuesday. Toby Shelley (D-C-Ref), Mahoney’s only competitor, received 40.3 percent of the vote — 27,578 votes total — as of 11:10 p.m.

In her previous race for the position, Mahoney ran unopposed and was elected for her second term. In her first race for county executive in 2007, Mahoney ran against Democrat Bill Magnarelli and won with 58 percent of the vote.

In September, Mahoney proposed a $1.266 billion budget for the county for 2016. The proposed budget is slightly less than this year’s budget of $1.268 billion. The 2016 proposed budget would decrease the property tax rate and increase the sewer unit charge.

When Mahoney proposed the 2016 budget, she also proposed to have the vote on future county budgets be moved to Dec. 6 — after the November elections.

In January 2014, there were talks that Mahoney was working together with New York state Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the city of Syracuse and SU to build a stadium downtown that would host some SU Athletics teams, including men’s basketball.

The stadium was proposed to be built in Kennedy Square, about five minutes from the SU campus, and hold about 44,000 people at a cost of nearly $500 million. Plans for the new stadium died after Mahoney could not persuade Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner to endorse the project.

Mahoney received her undergraduate and law degrees from SU. Before becoming county executive, Mahoney was a criminal prosecutor in the Onondaga County District Attorney’s Office, a stay-at-home mom and a Syracuse Common Councilor. In 2005, she ran for mayor but lost by 3 percent of the vote.

Published on November 4, 2015 at 12:04 am

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