The Daily OrangeFresh face: 23-year-old ESF graduate will take a seat on the Syracuse Common Council
By Jess Siart
Posted: 11/12/09, 2:03 AM EST Section: News
A recent college graduate is making his mark in local politics and hopes to turn Syracuse into a green-development hotspot.
Matt Rayo, 23, graduated from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry in 2008. Rayo, a Republican, defeated incumbent Michael Heagerty on Nov. 3 in the race for Syracuse common councilor of District 1. To win, it took a grassroots effort. And as common councilor, part of what he is hoping to do is apply what he learned at ESF to his new job.
Rayo has never held another official political position for the city. Up until the election, his day jobs included working at Wings in Syracuse and in the business office at ESF. But starting in the spring, Rayo showed his drive to win the race and tackle another, much larger job.
Rayo pointed out discrepancies in his opponent's campaign. Common council candidates are required to get signatures from their district, and Rayo found that Heagerty's list contained invalid signatures from outside District 1. Without those signatures, Heagerty did not have enough to run as a Democrat and had to run as a member of the Working Families party.
Rayo began working on his campaign after friends and local politicians encouraged him. He did most of the campaign work himself because the race was so localized. "I didn't have some huge campaign team in place. I mostly ran it myself," he said.
Localized campaigns rely on making a personal connection with the community, Rayo said. He credits his victory with his ability to do just that. During the last six weeks of the race, he spent most nights going door-to-door talking to voters to get an understanding of the problems in the district.
"A lot of them were quality-of-life issues. They were concerned with crime and code enforcements," Rayo said.
As councilor, Rayo will be responsible for listening to the concerns of his district and working with the necessary government programs and officials to fix its problems.
Matt Rayo, 23, graduated from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry in 2008. Rayo, a Republican, defeated incumbent Michael Heagerty on Nov. 3 in the race for Syracuse common councilor of District 1. To win, it took a grassroots effort. And as common councilor, part of what he is hoping to do is apply what he learned at ESF to his new job.
Rayo has never held another official political position for the city. Up until the election, his day jobs included working at Wings in Syracuse and in the business office at ESF. But starting in the spring, Rayo showed his drive to win the race and tackle another, much larger job.
Rayo pointed out discrepancies in his opponent's campaign. Common council candidates are required to get signatures from their district, and Rayo found that Heagerty's list contained invalid signatures from outside District 1. Without those signatures, Heagerty did not have enough to run as a Democrat and had to run as a member of the Working Families party.
Rayo began working on his campaign after friends and local politicians encouraged him. He did most of the campaign work himself because the race was so localized. "I didn't have some huge campaign team in place. I mostly ran it myself," he said.
Localized campaigns rely on making a personal connection with the community, Rayo said. He credits his victory with his ability to do just that. During the last six weeks of the race, he spent most nights going door-to-door talking to voters to get an understanding of the problems in the district.
"A lot of them were quality-of-life issues. They were concerned with crime and code enforcements," Rayo said.
As councilor, Rayo will be responsible for listening to the concerns of his district and working with the necessary government programs and officials to fix its problems.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Aaron
posted 11/12/09 @ 7:55 PM EST
"As councilor, Rayo will be responsible for listening to the concerns of his district, which includes all of the town of Lysander and a small, western portion of the town of Clay. (Continued…)
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