Voters on Tuesday returned Adam Bello to the Monroe County Executive seat for a second term, making him the first Democrat ever to be re-elected to that office.
The incumbent county executive decisively defeated his Republican challenger, former Gates Supervisor Mark Assini, 61% to 39%, according to unofficial results from the Monroe County Board of Elections.
In a victory speech Tuesday night, Bello said he’s still just getting started.
“Tonight, we're going to celebrate," he said. "But tomorrow, we've got to get back to work.”
It appears that Democrats also won a majority of the seats in the Monroe County Legislature.
When Bello was first voted in as county executive in 2019, he became the first Democrat elected to the position in 27 years. The county switched from an appointed manager to an elected executive in 1983, and Tom Frey, the only other Democrat to serve in the position, was voted out of office after his first term.
Throughout his campaign, Bello tried to show that under his leadership, the county has addressed major issues in the community. He emphasized that each of his budget proposals lowered the county property tax rate and that, in his forthcoming 2024 proposal, he plans to cut the rate to the lowest it’s been since 1947.
Bello touted county investments in programs that train workers for advanced manufacturing, health care, and construction trades. He also talked to voters about how his administration has addressed the ongoing opioid crisis by hiring clinicians to work with people struggling through addiction, created a 24-hour hotline to connect people to services, and distributed “tens of thousands” of doses of the anti-overdose drug naloxone.
Public safety was a top issue in this year’s elections across the board.
A key part of Bello’s platform was giving top billing to the $7.3 million expansion of the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office that he and Sheriff Todd Baxter ushered through the Legislature. The expansion will add 41 deputies and establish a new Regional Investigative Operations Center to coordinate investigations into patterns of criminal activity, such as smash-and-grab thefts, that span multiple jurisdictions.
Throughout his campaign, Assini tried to make a case to voters that Bello has been an ineffective executive who hasn’t done enough to lower taxes, improve public safety, and bolster the local economy.
Assini said he would publicly advocate for state lawmakers to repeal reforms they made to New York’s parole, juvenile justice, and bail laws that he believes fuel crime, and he criticized Bello for not making the same commitment.
He also proposed an initiative called “Rochester Families First,” where the county would work with faith leaders from across the area and provide resources to, as he put it during a debate, “conduct missions in our own city” to help young people.
On Tuesday night, he struck a conciliatory tone after conceding.
"They've clearly said, this is the man they want leading them," Assini said of voters. "And I want (Bello) to succeed, because if he does not succeed, it hurts our entire community."
