SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) — After a bruising and heated campaign, challenger Tony Malavenda conceded Tuesday’s election for Onondaga County Executive to incumbent Ryan McMahon.
Running for local office proved quite expensive for Malavenda as the utilities businessman loaned his campaign over a million dollars of his own money––$1,093,000 to be exact.
Ultimately, that over million-dollar campaign for the county’s top post attracted 46,609 votes, a little over 9,000 votes shy of McMahon’s total.
Added up, Malavenda spent about $24 for each ballot cast in his favor, according to Syracuse.com. Putting that over million-dollar loan in perspective, Malavenda could have bought each of his 46,609 supporters a half rack of ribs and a pint of beer at Dinosaur Bar-B-Que.
Campaign filings show that a good chunk of that money was used to buy TV commercials, which Malavenda says he needed as a means to counter McMahon’s baked-in media advantage as the current office holder.
“You have to do this through the media, and when you’re a challenger you don’t have that free media, right? Which is really worth hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Malavenda said. He added that McMahon could easily attract the attention of the local reporters by simply sending out a press release from his office.
Despite losing the race and the seven-figures it cost him to mount a campaign to become Onondaga County’s first Democratic executive, Malavenda appeared unfazed.
“I don’t regret doing it. I don’t regret the effort that I put into it. I don’t regret anything,” Malavenda said, adding “I don’t even regret the hits I took, you know, the lies, the hits to my character and stuff, cause the people that know me know that’s not the case.”
