Posted By Dan Cummings - Election Day is history, and history was made.  For the first time ever, Onondaga County will have a woman in the position of county executive.  Joanie Mahoney scored an impressively easy win over Bill Magnarelli.  Easy, if you're on the outside looking in.  I asked the Executive-elect if she could pinpoint one factor that most contributed to her victory.  She barely paused and then responded, "Hard work."
 
From the day last winter when Nick Pirro announced his retirement, Mahoney and the people who joined her campaign have worked, hard.  The result on Primary Day was 21 votes more than Dale Sweetland.  The result this past Tuesday: an overwhelming victory over a well-funded Democratic opponent.
 
My coverage of the campaign leads me to salute both the victor and the vanquished.  Joanie Mahoney and Bill Magnarelli ran clean, above-the-belt campaigns.  The only "shots" they took were fair ones.  Not personal.   They put their resumes and their takes on the issues out there for all to see in a dizzying number of public appearances and debates.  The voters made their choice.  Late Tuesday night, when the result was clear, Magnarelli...ever the gentleman...conceded gracefully.  He also said something that should please everyone:  that come January 1-st, he and Mahoney will be working together, for the greater good of Onondaga County.