(Update 11:21 p.m.) Rochester has had 65 mayors, all of them male. That will change on January 1 as Lovely Warren wins the Rochester Mayoral election, taking 56 percent of the vote. Warren defeated Rochester Mayor Tom Richards who took 39 percent of the vote, and Alex White who took 5 percent.
Warren stunned pundits back in September, defeating Mayor Tom Richards in the Democratic Primary by 16 percentage points, even while polls showed that Richards has a comfortable lead.
Warren becomes the second African-American mayor in Rochester history, the first was Bill Johnson who served from 1994-2005.
Warren faced an unexpected challenge from Richards in the general election, even though he was not actively campaigning. He remained on the Independence and Working Families party lines, and members of the Independence Party as well as some city hall staffers and others mounted a push in the last couple of weeks in an effort to get voters to cast ballots for Richards.
Richards released this statement after Warren's victory:
I want to congratulate Lovely Warren on her victory tonight. We have already begun work on the transition and I have instructed Senior staff--and I'm asking all City employees to do whatever it takes to ensure a smooth and cooperative transition process. The job of mayor goes far beyond a single individual. It's now time for the entire community to come together and support the new Mayor and continue working to make our City great.
Three upstate New York cities will be led by a female mayor. Kathy Sheehan was elected as the first female mayor in Albany and Stephanie Miner, Syracuse's first female mayor, won re-election.