Editor’s note: This story originally ran on Democracywise, an SU-based website with stories from political reporting students.

Green Party candidate Ursula Rozum lost her first bid for Congress on Tuesday night during New York’s hotly contested race for the 24th Congressional District seat.

“If we don’t win today, we’re going to win eventually,” Rozum said during a press conference at the Green Party post-election event. Rozum’s family and a group of about 50 constituents met for drinks and traditional Polish pierogies at the Syracuse Polish Home.

As of 3:45 a.m., with 99 percent of the vote counted, Rozum received 8 percent, or 21, 291 votes. U.S. Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle, R-Onondaga Hill, was trailing Democratic challenger Dan Maffei with 44 percent – or 117,904 votes, according to the unofficial results from the Onondaga County Board of Elections. Maffei was leading with 48 percent of the vote, or 130, 508 votes.

The newly drawn 24th Congressional District includes all of Cayuga, Onondaga and Wayne counties, and part of Oswego County. Voter registration in the district gave Rozum slim chances of victory. Of the 409,462 registered voters, 35 percent are Republicans and 34 percent are Democrats. The Green Party has 960 registered voters. About 23 percent of voters are unaffiliated with a party.

At the Green Party event at about 10:45 p.m. Tuesday, Rozum announced she had conceded to the Buerkle and Maffei campaigns. Despite the loss, supporters applauded Rozum for garnering one of the highest vote percentages for a Green Party candidate in a three-way congressional race.

Rozum’s campaign manager, Howie Hawkins, ran for Congress twice on the Green Party ticket and said Rozum blew his totals — in terms of percentages and actual votes — out of the water. Extra media attention and Rozum’s personality made her campaign a success, Hawkins said.

“We got a much stronger vote, we got a lot more respect and a lot more people heard about our platform,” he said.

Rozum, 28, is a staff coordinator with the Syracuse Peace Council who has a long history in left-leaning projects and groups. In 2009, she was the canvasser with Working Families Party and, in 2010, the upstate campaign coordinator for Hawkins during his run for governor.

In one of the nation’s most expensive congressional races, Rozum had far less campaign money than her opponents. As of Oct. 20, Rozum had only raised $7,853 total in donations for her campaign, while Buerkle and Maffei had raised more than $1 million each.

In the week before the election, Rozum received large, unsolicited campaign donations from one of Buerkle’s supporters in Florida. Rozum thought the donations were a tactic to help her win votes that may otherwise go to Maffei and help Buerkle win the election, The Post-Standard reported. Rozum donated the money to local charities.

Overall, Rozum spent less than $9,000 on her campaign, so she earned far more votes per dollar than her opponents, she said.

At the Green Party event, supporters praised Rozum for her grassroots approach and willingness to address issues such as the environment and climate change.

Annette Bailey, a custodian at Syracuse University, switched her voter registration from a Democrat to a Green Party member a few years ago. She voted for Rozum, she said, because she’s providing an alternative voice in the election.

“It felt really good to vote for someone that I believe in. The Green Party is passionate and they’re going to start working to address these problems instead of just ignoring them,” Bailey said. “I don’t want empty promises; I want action.”

Despite the loss, Rozum said the campaign was successful because it spread Green Party ideals and gained new members.

“We really came out of this election stronger than we came into it,” Rozum said during the press conference. “And our strength moving forward really depends on everyone in this room to think about how they can contribute to growing the movement.”

Published on November 7, 2012 at 4:49 am

Contact Liz: egsawyer@syr.edu | @3sawyer