Ithaca City Hall, Green Street
On Tuesday – June 27, 2023 – Ithaca held primary elections for municipal positions. After redistricting, the entire Ithaca Common Council is up for reelection this year.
Two of Ithaca’s five wards cover Cornell: the Fifth and the Fourth. The Fifth Ward encompasses North Campus and Cornell Heights as well as the section of University Ave. that extends down through Linn St. The Fourth Ward covers all of West Campus and much of Collegetown.
Ward Five’s two seats on the Common Council – each ward sends a two-year and four-year representative – were contested by Cornell students in the Democratic primary. For the two-year seat, Cornell ILR student Clyde Lederman ‘26 challenged local information technology worker Jason Houghton. In the four-year race, community organizer Margaret Fabrizio faced off against Michelle Song ‘25.
A freshman on the Common Council? Clyde Lederman’s ideas to fix the city.
Lederman ’26 is currently leading Houghton by seven votes in the unofficial results. Song ‘25 is losing to Fabrizio by six votes. Mail-in ballots have yet to be counted, so the results can still change in the final count.
Several months ago, Lederman sat down with the Review to discuss his candidacy; the freshman promised, among other things, to make TCAT and Ithaca’s affordability crisis central to his platform. If he is elected in November, Lederman will be the youngest alderman to sit on the Ithaca Common Council in the body’s history.
Fabrizio, the other leading candidate, has been a fixture in the Ithaca community for 40 years, including as manager of the City’s prosecution office.
Fabrizio and Lederman have focused on renegotiating the “memorandum of understanding” between the City of Ithaca and Cornell. Under this agreement, Cornell – which largely does not pay Ithaca property taxes – sends a lump sum to the City to cover municipal services and lost property tax revenue. The current memorandum of understanding expires in 2024.
Does Cornell pay its ‘fare’ share? Administration refuses to increase funding to TCAT.
Under this agreement, Cornell will pay $1.575 million to the city this year. Lederman and Fabrizio campaigned on extracting more money from the university.
While official numbers have yet to be reported, turnout in the more-than-90%-student-populated Fifth Ward was catastrophic: only 168 people voted in both Fifth Ward races. Contested primaries in other wards, meanwhile, saw turnouts of 500-700 people.
Absentee ballots have yet to be counted, which could change the results.
The Democratic nominations for the Fourth Ward were uncontested.
Whoever emerges victorious in the Democratic primary is the overwhelming favorite to win in November given Ithaca’s deep blue leanings.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated as more details become available.
