Assemblyman Bill Magnarelli, left, and Onondaga County Legislator Maurice "Mo" Brown will face off in the Democratic primary for the New York State Assembly's 129th District. Credit: Photo of Magnarelli taken by Mike Greenlar; Brown provided his photo

Editor’s note: This story is part of CNY Decides, a collaboration between Central Current and WAER to demystify the political process and bring you the stories and information you’ll remember in the voting booth in 2026. The series will take readers inside real-time shifts in the local political landscape, with a focus on how upcoming elections will impact our region. The collaboration will run through May and June 2026.

Maurice “Mo” Brown has built much of the image of Syracuse’s current progressive movement. He has helped run campaigns for progressive candidates for U.S. Congress and in nearby state assembly districts and is a sitting Onondaga County legislator at a time when the Democrats have retaken the majority for the first time in decades.

Brown and other Democrats say he has brought new ideas to a community increasingly embracing politically and culturally diverse elected leaders and more transformative solutions to issues of housing, transportation, and healthcare.

Brown earlier this year took a step forward he had been mulling since at least 2019: run to represent the 129th Assembly District. In June, he will face Bill Magnarelli, an entrenched incumbent who has represented the district in Albany for almost 30 years. 

The 129th Assembly District is made up of parts of Syracuse and the towns of Geddes and Van Buren. Almost two thirds of the city’s residents live within the district, which wraps around the city in a “C” shape. The district includes the Strathmore, Tipp Hill, and University neighborhoods.

“I want to help people, and I’m limited in how much I’m able to help people in the legislature,” Brown said.

Brown has painted his race to unseat Magnarelli as a “Super Bowl.” He sees himself as the city’s progressive champion facing the incumbent — the pick of a local Democratic Party establishment Brown says is outdated and out of touch. Magnarelli has objected to Brown painting his incumbency as derogatory.

A win would bring with it a better chance to enact more transformative change while bringing the district more in line with the state legislature, Brown said. He has argued the state legislature is more progressive and effective than the county legislature.

Magnarelli and Brown differ on whether they better fit the district. Brown called Magnarelli “an obstacle to progress,” while Magnarelli argued he has changed with his constituency. The incumbent argued his experience in policy, the inner workings of the state legislature and relationships throughout Albany counter the image painted by Brown. 

“Everybody who’s got any kind of intellect at all changes over 30 years,” Magnarelli said, referencing his 28 years as a member of the State Assembly. “Of course, there’s different ideas and things that come up that force you to change.”

In his 14 two-year terms, Magnarelli added, he has brought vital funding to projects that have become drivers of economic development in the district — like SUNY Upstate Medical University. 

Magnarelli has also been a part of the efforts to revitalize Syracuse’s downtown. He secured funding to transform landmarks of downtown that have become emblematic of life in the city. That includes The Landmark Theater, The Museum of Science and Technology, The Everson Museum of Art, and The Onondaga Historical Association. 

Brown acknowledged Magnarelli’s accomplishments, but the district needs urgency and change, Brown said. 

“I think he is legislating as if this is 10 and 15 years ago,” he said. “The community has changed and he hasn’t. Who he is isn’t terrible. I just think we can do better.”

Magnarelli said he will continue to remind voters of his legacy and recent accomplishments, both perks of a long incumbency. Voters, he said, also appreciate Magnarelli’s openness, transparency, and willingness to have a presence in the community, hosting town halls and conducting constituent surveys every year. 

His incumbency has allowed him to listen and get to know the entirety of his constituency. Brown, on the other hand, is only listening to a sliver of the district’s population, Magnarelli said. 

“My opponent has no idea of how deeply the people of this district understand what my office is doing on a daily basis,” Magnarelli said. 

Housing, transportation, taxes on the rich

Brown and Magnarelli have prioritized housing affordability and access to transportation as two of the tenets of their campaign.

Brown’s desire to fund “Invest Syracuse,” a program devised by local and national housing experts that could spur the development of mixed-income, affordable housing projects, is a key reason Brown decided to run, he said. The Greater Syracuse Land Bank would spearhead the initiative, a local take on the “public developer” model of housing financing. It aims to incentivize developers who are unable to secure scarce government subsidies.  

A public developer helps offset some costs of development with low or no-interest loans at a time when construction costs and interest rates are sky-high. These are made available through a revolving loan fund.

Brown said the program could benefit from having significant state support. The initiative is likely to even be popular with local Republicans like County Executive Ryan McMahon, he added. But so far, fellow Democrats in the county legislature have been disinterested. This divide, Brown said, is emblematic of the differences between progressives and other Democrats in the county.

“I don’t think I have 10 Democrats willing to get behind that,” he said. “And it was frustrating. It was really frustrating.”

Magnarelli has said he wants to continue building housing to solve issues of affordability, supply, and demand. He wants to continue exploring ways to build more housing to accommodate increases in demand that will arise from the demolition of the Interstate 81 viaduct. 

“I’ve been up to my eyeballs in it for years. And what I was saying about that project was ‘you have no housing built into this. Where is everybody going to go?,’” Magnarelli said. “For the last eight years, they’ve done nothing.”

During this session, Magnarelli co-sponsored legislation to facilitate development of accessory dwelling units, smaller structures attached to other housing that can be rented to tenants looking for homes. 

One of the bills co-sponsored by Magnarelli, the ADU Incentives Act, tasks the State’s Division of Homes and Community Renewal to create a loan program to encourage the construction of these small homes provided landlords charge lower rents. 

The program would dole out loans of $75,000 or up to 50% of project costs, whichever is lowest.

Another bill would establish a pilot program to provide grants to some municipalities that construct ADUs on housing projects that use mass timber, a type of housing framing characterized by the use of large wood panels paired with wood columns and beams. The legislation would also provide tax credits for new construction or major retrofits of buildings that use mass timber.

On transportation, Magnarelli and Brown want to expand and improve Centro’s service. Magnarelli says Centro is going to be vital to get Central New Yorkers to their jobs. 

As the chair of the State Assembly’s Transportation Committee, Magnarelli has attempted to get more funding for upstate transit authorities, including the Central New York Regional Transportation Authority that operates Centro and other transportation programs. One of those measures included a 6% surcharge on car rentals in 2019 that goes toward shoring up operation costs for regional transportation authorities.

“There’s not enough,” he said. “We’re still begging each year for tens of millions of dollars just to keep Centro, and the Capital District, and Niagara Falls, Buffalo up and running.” 

Another way to fund upstate public transportation that Magnarelli has championed during this session is an added $25 fee to biannual car registration costs. The measure is unlikely to be included as a policy attached to this year’s state budget, but has already been in operation in New York City for years. 

He added that detractors of the added fee have labeled it a tax, effectively deeming it radioactive for elected leaders who are seeking re-election. 

“She has basically said, ‘I don’t want to do any taxes,’” he said.

Brown agrees with the sentiment put forth by the Republican legislators and Hochul because the fee can act as a tax on working people, he said. Despite that, he supports charging the $25 biannually to fund public transit if he had to vote on it.

“We have to stop this habit of asking our working people to pay more before we ask our wealthiest earners,” he said.

Taxing the rich has become an issue that both Brown and Magnarelli have followed closely, particularly as states face uncertainty around federal funding and potential issues balancing their budgets. 

Brown is aligned with some of the proposals put forth by New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who has proposed reforms to estate taxes, income taxes, and raising the state’s highest corporate tax rate. Revenue gains would cover the cost of initiatives like free buses and child care and the creation of city-owned grocery stores.

“If we try those different things and they don’t work, then it’s like, ‘okay, let’s ask working people to pay more,’” Brown said. “But to ask working people to pay more in this economy. I don’t know if I can get with that.”

Magnarelli said his support on taxing the rich would depend on the details of a proposal.

“Taxing income, somebody making a million dollars a year, and you want to add a point to that,” Magnarelli said. “I don’t have a problem with that, especially now… where we have to fill gaps in.”

“It just depends on where you are going to make that cut off,” he added.

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Eddie Velazquez is a Syracuse journalist covering economic justice in the region. He is focused on stories about organized labor, and New York's housing and childhood lead poisoning crises. You can follow...