Syracuse, N.Y. – Well before all the votes were tallied, Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon stepped up to the hotel podium and thanked voters for electing him to four more years.
By then McMahon, a Republican, led his Democratic challenger, Bill Kinne, by more than 20 percentage points. There were still votes to count, but McMahon clearly had won a decisive victory.
“Any time you get this kind of validation from the public, it energizes you,’’ he said in an interview. “So we’re pumped up.”
McMahon said the election result was a ringing endorsement of his leadership during the past four years and an expression of confidence in the future. He predicted that a final vote tally might show him leading in every district of the county, including the Democrat-dominated city of Syracuse.
“The psychology of the community, I think, is changing,’’ he said. “And that’s what I think this election was about — that we are a community that is growing, we are competing, we are winning.’’
Kinne had not conceded defeat as of 11 p.m. Tuesday.
McMahon and other Republicans celebrated his victory at the Embassy Suites Destiny USA hotel in Syracuse. The unofficial vote count at the end of the night showed McMahon had won, 62% to 38%.
The county executive rattled of a long list of issues he will address during the next four years, from opioid addiction to farmland protection. But McMahon’s second full term will likely be dominated by the development of Micron Technology’s planned semiconductor manufacturing complex in Clay.
Helping to recruit the memory chip maker to Central New York was the crowning achievement of McMahon’s first term. Over the coming four years, the company expects to build two of its four planned fabrication facilities and start making chips.
To supply all the workers for construction and operation, Onondaga County must undergo a housing boom and a technical training boom. In addition, the project requires significant expansions of…
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