Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren will give her State of the City address Monday night. Credit: FILE PHOTO

[UPDATE] In a long-anticipated move, Mayor Lovely Warren has announced that she’ll seek a second term.

Given the Democratic Party’s voter-registration domination in Rochester, a Democrat is almost certain to win the November general election. But Warren will first have to face at least three other candidates in a September 12 Democratic primary: former Rochester Police Chief James Sheppard, former television reporter Rachel Barnhart. Business owner Alex White will run as a Green Party candidate.

Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren announced her re-election bid on Monday. Credit: FILE PHOTO

Warren is Rochester’s first woman mayor and only the second African-American mayor. She has a law degree from Albany Law School; was legislative assistant and chief of staff to State Assemblymember David Gantt, her mentor; was elected to City Council in 2007, and was elected Council president in 2010.

She won the Democratic Party’s nomination for mayor in 2013 after challenging then-Mayor Tom Richards in a primary – and she beat him again in the general election after Richards’ supporters mounted an independent campaign for him.

Warren has received both sharp criticism and praise during her first term. As she agreed in her announcement today, she got off to a rocky start, appointing an uncle as her security guard, for instance. And her appointments to the Rochester Housing Authority and her actions related to the school district’s school-modernization plan have been particularly controversial. But downtown development continues to increase, and her administration’s initiatives include police reorganization, police body cameras, job training and transportation programs, efforts to boost city students’ college enrollment, Sanctuary City legislation, LGBTQ advocacy, and increased library and recreation center funding.

In her campaign announcement, she said that in her second term she would focus on increased development, affordable housing, public safety, and job and educational opportunities. And she lashed out at the Trump administration and promised to lead Rochester in resisting policies that would harm the city and its residents.

This article appears in Mar 1-7, 2017.

Mary Anna Towler is a transplant from the Southern Appalachians and is editor, co-publisher, and co-founder of City. She is happy to have converted a shy but opinionated childhood into an adult job. She...

6 replies on “Warren will seek a second term”

  1. The Wilson Pakula Law prohibits Alex White from running as a Democrat. He’s a member of the Green Party. The County Democrats would need to give him permission. And they’ve said no.

  2. What has Lovely done to warrant re-election? I can’t think of one thing. The others don’t look to promising either with the exception of James Shepard, if he is tough on crime.

    Democrats never seem to get the fact that with a growing economy, most of the other problems go away.

  3. Time for change. Warren has done nothing to distinguish herself as worthy for a second term.

  4. I just saw the article in the D & C, Shepard won the party’s nomination. SURPRISE !! What did you all expect, warren backed a republican in the county executive race. She did so as not to have interference with her agenda for rottenchester. Don’t bite the hand that feeds you, ritght ? What’s great about this is humiliation. If she opted not to run again, she would’ve saved face. NEXT !

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