Q&A: Syracuse’s Man Of The Mo’Ment

The ballots have (finally) been counted and Onondaga County Legislator Maurice “Mo” Brown (D-Syracuse) has won the 129th Assembly District Democratic primary, defeating Assembly Transportation Chair Bill Magnarelli (D-Syracuse) by just 78 votes.

The race was too close to call for a week after Election Day, when Brown led by a slightly larger 82 votes. Neither candidate declared victory, nor conceded — but that all changed once affidavit ballots were tallied on Tuesday.

Brown is expected to comfortably win the seat in the general election this November.

“It has been an honor and a privilege to represent the people of Central New York in both the Syracuse Common Council and the New York State Assembly for over 30 years,” Magnarelli said in a statement. “Unfortunately, all good things come to an end. I congratulate Mo Brown on his win and wish him the best of luck. I want to once again thank all of my constituents who have supported me through the years. I am grateful to you all.” 

The veteran lawmaker was viewed as an obstacle to street safety legislation in the state Legislature and was often at odds with advocates over basic policy, like e-bike regulations, but the self-described Democratic Socialist Brown says he wants to make life in Syracuse more livable, including for pedestrians and cyclists.

Brown joined Streetsblog and shared some of his thoughts on the district he’ll likely represent next year in Albany.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Streetsblog: If you had to put it down to your message or campaign strategy, what locked in this narrow win?

Mo Brown: People over profits. So we were outspent. Our opponent spent half a million dollars, but we had a lot of people power. We had a massive volunteer effort on the ground, but we also had a massive volunteer effort on phones, and it was just an outpouring of people writing postcards, and it was just a real people-first campaign.

Was it helpful that the Working Families Party and the DSA, and just the overall progressive movement in New York, they didn’t necessarily view the Syracuse race as like its own separate thing; it was like part of a larger fight, so to get that help from various corners of New York, was that pretty useful?

I was not a part of the NYC DSA slate; like I didn’t get a national DSA endorsement, but I did have my local chapter’s endorsement, and Syracuse DSA was tremendous. But the Working Families Party has been with me the entire step, statewide and locally, and I don’t take that for granted. The support here in Syracuse has been tremendous. I think that Zohran [Mamdani, NYC mayor] and his campaign did me a lot of favors. And I’m a Democratic Socialist. I don’t run from it. I am much closer to Fred Hampton than I am to any elected official. I am happy that it is more socially acceptable to run as a socialist.

On Election Day, in the parts of the district that immediately border I-81, you ran up a nearly 400-vote lead, and during the campaign you repeatedly mentioned that Bill Magnarelli, though he eventually came around, was rather slow to support that community grid plan. Do you think that really weighed on voters’ minds?

I’m not sure, probably not, but it could have. I more so think it’s just the urgency and the affordability. His message was pretty much like things are fine, and then people looked at their bank accounts, they looked at their National Grid bill, people would look around them and they would see that actually things are not fine.

And this message was not a landslide overwhelming victory by any means, like we squeaked it out, so half of the Democrats at least do think things are fine, but for a lot of us things are not fine, and we’ve been being swept under the rug here in Syracuse for the past 28 years, and I’m glad that I could finally be a voice for those people, and I think that together we can realize our strength.

But the only way we do that is by having these hard conversations, and I think one of those hard conversations was the I-81 project that impacts different communities differently, and some of the communities are harmed, while others are not even bothered.

Magnarelli was seen as out of touch, but do you think it’s sort of interesting how, with some other lawmakers around his age, that hasn’t really been a problem?

I think that age wasn’t as much of a factor. Some of my biggest supporters are his senior — Sen. Bernie Sanders endorsed my campaign. Syracuse is a fairly segregated city, so that is just a reality where you’re going to have Bill and me running to represent the same district, and we come from very different backgrounds.

He’s of retirement age, and he has a pension, and I’ve been thinking about this now that the race has been like more fickle, in terms of, if I don’t win, I’m going to have to find a job. I’ve been looking at job applications, like it’s just a different mindset. But I don’t think that makes him worse or me better. It’s just different, and we need to acknowledge both.

Is part of you a little concerned, though? This is the Assembly transportation chair who lost and he was from Syracuse. So having one less voice for the city if you aren’t appointed to it, is that something you’re worried about? Are you going to maybe request that you can at least fill that opening?

I would love to chair the transportation committee. I don’t know if that’s in the cards, but I definitely want to be on the transportation committee. If, for no other reason, we have such a big project — the I-81 project — in progress. Like I’ve said, there are still questions we need to answer about that project, about the greenways and the blueways, or what we want the grid to look like, and I want to be a part of that conversation. I want to make sure that, our seniors are able to cross near roundabouts safely. I think we’re going to have city representation on committees in Albany, and I think, issue-wise, we saw the issues the same; we just saw the severity very differently. So I’m not too worried about losing that seniority on the committee.

You have a DSA member also elected to the Assembly over in Buffalo: Adam Bojack. I mean, does it feel like these wins show a different version of upstate New York than people might assume if they aren’t really familiar with the area?

I was born in Brooklyn, and I moved to Syracuse, but I have experience with downstate poverty as well as upstate poverty, and I can tell you there are more similarities than we would like to admit. The transportation looks different in the city, like with the buses. In New York City, it’s like, you want fast and free buses. We’re in Syracuse; I just want the buses to get to my destination. It’s just like a different level of severity. I’ll happily pay the dollar if it means I can get there.

I think some people have wondered if the next person to be transportation chair should be from upstate New York, or if it should even have been given to Magnarelli, over someone in the MTA region. How do you view it?

I think public transportation is much more vital and much more needed for a thriving society than he does. Syracuse historically has been very car-centric, so a lot of our transportation policies have been dominated by that thought that you need a car to get around, and I just don’t agree with that. But I don’t know who should be the chair; if it’s not him, I can lobby for myself.

Is there legislation that you’d like to push for should you win the general election this fall?

I support Vision Zero, for sure. Fundamentally, I think we need to implement Vision Zero policies at all levels. One bill that I had die in the county legislature around safe passage, I’m hoping we can get that through the transportation committee to make safe passage for bicycles three feet statewide. Vulnerable road users, whether it’s pedestrians or bikers, you know, we all deserve safe passage.

Do you have a parting message for voters beyond, “We did it?”

Yeah, I’m gonna fight for Syracuse, even if you didn’t support me in this primary, even if you don’t support me in the general. I think the previous leadership style has been a lot more wait and see, gatekeep, whatever the policy is, we will evaluate that. I’m going to be a lot more active in policymaking and trying to get laws passed, so I think the opportunity is there, and we have the ability to build a better Syracuse, but it’s going to take a lot of work to do it, and I’m going to need your help.