Welcome back to #WeeklyWonk. Each weekend I publish an article on a subject relating to elections in Onondaga County and New York State. Often these articles will have detailed stats to consume but sometimes they will be a recap of a prominent issue or on relevant election law. I am turning my eye to the 2023 elections and the political subdivision having races. Today I investigate the Village of Liverpool, an emerging Democratic community in Onondaga County.
The Village of Liverpool sits in the Town of Salina in the northern suburbs of the City of Syracuse. This lake community is the home of Onondaga Lake Park and sits on the edge of Onondaga Lake. The makeup of Dewitt is 40% Democrat (687 Voters), 26% GOP (435 Voters), and 28% non-Enrolled (477 voters). Liverpool elects its leadership village wide in June elections. It is divided into two different election districts, ED 3 (West) and ED 4 (East). Ed 3 (991 voters 58%) is bigger than ED 4 (719 voters 42%).
In a new feature I am bringing to the #weeklywonk this year I am doing a heat map for each political subdivision. I will be looking at the current partisan makeup of each individual ED and heat mapping its partisan lean based on the advantage for the Democrats and GOP. With only two EDS we see that Liverpool is solidly Democratic. ED 3 has a moderate Democratic lean between +10-15%. ED 4 has a strong Democratic lean between +15-20%.
Since 2012 The Village of Liverpool went from a solid GOP village to an emerging Democratic community. Democrats have gained 185 voters while the GOP lost 100 voters. The Non-enrolled has seen only a small gain of 42 voters. The Trump years was a driving factor in the increasing Democratic community in Liverpool, but it has continued after those years as well. The GOP has seen a small consistent decrease each year as their enrollment is not being replaced. The Non-enrolled gains, unlike other areas of Onondaga County, only have come recently but they did overtake the GOP finally in 2021.
The election districts of Liverpool are on either side of Oswego St. splitting the Village into two halves. ED 3 is the western more populous district. Democrats dominate this district 398 DEM to 259 GOP and 275 Non-enrolled. This gives Democrats an advantage of +14.03%. Democrats do even better in the eastern district of ED 4 with 289 DEM to 176 GOP and 275 Non-enrolled. That gives Democrats a partisan advantage of +15.72%.
Looking at the growth of voters since the last redistricting cycle we compare it with date from May 2012. The Village of Liverpool grew by 100 active voters. The growth comes solely in the Western ED 4 which gained all 100 voters. The eastern region of ED 3 has the same number of active voters as they did in 2012.
The Village of Liverpool Democratic advantage has grown by 17.10% since 2012, outpacing Onondaga County overall. Both EDS grew in Democratic advantage, but at different rates. The eastern ED 4 did not see any raw voter growth but did gain in Democratic advantage by +13.91%. The story of Liverpool’s Democratic switch though lies in the western ED 3. Not only was all the voter growth there, but Democratic advantage also grew by +19.75%. ED 3 was what gave Liverpool a GOP lead in 2012 and its complete 260 and voter growth is driving the Democratic voter rise in the village.
When we look at the comparative races, we see why Democrats run extremely well in the village. In 2019 Dan Kolinski for County Clerk garnered 52.91% of the vote, 5.18% ahead of his Onondaga County rate. President Biden in 2020 63.10% of the vote, 4.22% ahead of his Onondaga rate. In 2021 Anthony Brindisi for Supreme Court garnered 61.34% of the vote, 8.84% behind his GOP rate. In 2022 Governor Hochul garnered 63.29% of the vote, 9.51% ahead of her Onondaga County rate. These statistics are some of the most Partly due to inactivity and partly due to the odd timing of the June elections the Democrats have not run candidates on their line whole The GOP has consistently run candidates on their line. This means there are no local races to compare to.
In 2023 the Salina Town Democrats are running a full slate on the Democratic line in the Village of Liverpool. They held their first caucus in over 20 years and had a unanimous nomination for their candidates, Stacey Finney is running for Mayor and Melissa Cassidy and Rachel Ciotti are running for Village Board. Their election is June 20, 2023. You can follow the Salina Democrats here to follow their campaign: https://www.facebook.com/groups/214715395537.
That is, it for this week’s edition of the #WeeklyWonk. Next week I look at the other village having a June election, the village of North Syracuse. As always go to dustinczarny.com and subscribe to get all your content and election news updates. I run that website, along with these series of articles, as part of my voter education. I never take ad money or charge subscriptions paying for the site with my own personal funds. Subscribe here.
Dustin M. Czarny 