Published: November 04, 2009 01:45 am      

CITY OF TONAWANDA: Pilozzi holds off Davis

After a long wait Tuesday night, City of Tonawanda Mayor Ron Pilozzi appears to have won his re-election bid against challenger Rick Davis.

At their election night rally, Republicans actually called the race for Pilozzi much earlier in the evening, when early returns calculated by the campaign showed the mayor to be substantially ahead. Pilozzi even went so far as to deliver his victory speech to supporters gathered at the Knights of Columbus hall before suspicions about the low turnout represented in the figures began to creep up.

Down Main Street, at the Griffin bar where Democrats had gathered, a sense of confusion was readily apparent. Numbers weren’t adding up there either, especially in challenger Rick Davis’ 4th Ward. Davis said the totals leave a lot of questions unanswered that will linger in the days and maybe even weeks to come.

“I just have a hard time believing that he beat me in my own ward, which I’ve carried pretty handily in other races,” Davis said.

Pilozzi led the race by 171 votes after all 16 city precincts reported their unofficial tallies shortly before 1 a.m. on the Erie County Board of Elections Web site, though Republican Elections Commissioner Ralph Mohr cautioned in the early morning hours Wednesday that he “wouldn’t write that in stone.”

The mayor said he was relatively sure the voters had responded to the tone of his campaign and the accomplishments of his first term.

“You have one side that looked at accomplishments and what we’ve been able to do in four years versus a lot of innuendo and misrepresentation,” Pilozzi said. “I think people saw through that.”

The mayor’s race presented clear cut distinctions for voters. Davis pushed for housing development on Little League Drive while Pilozzi asked for more time to work out an arrangement with the school district. Pilozzi defended city wide reassessments and the subsequent handling of negotiations with River Edge residents when Davis called for a swifter settlement on assessment lawsuits. Davis wanted to cut the city’s grant writer loose while Pilozzi said the arrangement has brought the city millions.

With only 100 absentee ballots on file and waiting to be opened according to the Board of Elections, the race is solidly in Pilozzi’s possession. But for supporters of both campaigns, who began to filter out of their gatherings just after midnight with no clear answers, the evening ended with neither the jubilation nor dejection they’d expected.

Contact reporter Daniel Pye at 693-1000, ext. 158.