SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Juanita Perez Williams has won the Syracuse mayoral primary.

She captured 52 percent of the votes, Joe Nicoletti got 34 percent and Martin Masterpole received less than 10 percent.

Perez Williams carried most of the city. She won 50 election districts, while Nicoletti carried six. Perez Williams won by 450 votes in the 17th ward on the city's East Side, a Democratic stronghold.

She is Syracuse's first Latina mayoral candidate.

Nicoletti conceded defeat in the primary race, but declined to say if he will stay in the race. He will be on the November ballot as a mayoral candidate for the Working Families Party.

Onondaga County Democratic Chairman Mark English congratulated Perez-Williams' campaign manager, Dan Kolinski. Kolinski said Nicoletti campaign manager Christine Fix called and asked him for Perez-Williams' phone number.

Nicoletti, addressing his supporters, said he tried three times to call Perez-Williams, but couldn't get through.

Steve Kimatian, unsuccessful Republican mayoral candidate in 2009 and former city Republican chairman, attended Perez Williams' victory party. He said he was putting city over party.

Nicoletti ran unsuccessfully for mayor in 1993 against Roy Bernardi. This was Nicoletti's fourth mayoral primary and the third one he lost.

Perez Williams, 54, was corporation counsel under Stephanie Miner for more than a year and has held high-ranking positions at Syracuse University and in the New York State Labor Department.

She is a veteran who served in the U.S. Navy. Perez Williams, a California native, moved to Syracuse about 25 years ago.