Brian Sharp

@SharpRoc

Mayor Lovely Warren announced her re-election bid on Monday, facing what appear to be long odds to secure her party's endorsement.

Such a rebuke of an incumbent and de-facto leader of local Democrats would be a first in Rochester politics. But it is not unexpected, as Warren herself contends that the groundwork was laid starting with her surprising election victory which propelled her into office back in 2013.

“You have the same group of people that ran the general election, ran the primary against me, are in control of the process now," she said in an interview Monday before her official announcement. "That’s the reality. I’ve been here before.”

That was part of her message to supporters Monday evening, during her campaign kickoff before a packed crowd at Brue Coffee on Genesee Street in the 19th Ward. She spent much of her childhood in the neighborhood, as her grandparents lived on Jefferson Avenue.

In her address, she relished the underdog role, telling supporters: "This campaign will be a difficult one ... but I have never run from a fight."

Warren is being challenged by Monroe County Legislator and former city police chief James Sheppard; former WROC-TV reporter/anchor Rachel Barnhart; and local businessman Alex White. All but White are Democrats, and all hope to best Warren to be designated party candidate in the Democratic primary. That process begins Tuesday when the city district committees begin meeting.

►Sheppard officially announces run for mayor

►Rachel Barnhart announces her run for mayor

►Alex White formally announces Rochester mayoral bid

"This committee year for everybody is a wildcard," said Anthony Plonczynski, vice chairman of the Sheppard campaign. "The party is probably the most diverse it's been ever. I welcome it."

That is because, in last year's primary, there was a flood of new names on the ballot seeking open committee seats and challenging incumbents for others. The effort was described as grassroots, led by unionized paraprofessional employees in the city school district with on-the-ground assistance from New York State United Teachers. By Plonczynski's calculation, the elections flipped 140 seats and one city committee, while changing the balance in others, such as one headed by City Councilman Adam McFadden, a strong supporter of Warren for mayor.

It is those committees and their members who will gather at the Democratic convention this spring to pick the party's designated candidates.

"I’ll put it this way," McFadden said, "if she won the designation I’d be shocked. Because, even before the committee challenges that happened over in the southwest, it was still questionable."

In a letter to Democratic leaders last week, Warren made a pitch for party unity, while acknowledging the discord: "I often look at an email that I received from a prominent committee member when I decided to run for mayor years ago. 'Even if you win,' she wrote, 'you will never be our mayor.'"

"There are people who believe Mayor Warren is an accidental mayor," said former-Mayor William A. Johnson Jr., who supports Warren. "She kind of snuck up on them, caught them off guard. They weren’t prepared for her victory. She’s got to just beat them."

Warren's ascension to the city's top post came via a primary challenge of then-incumbent and designated party candidate Mayor Thomas Richards. Just 36 at the time, she became Rochester's youngest mayor of the modern era, third-youngest ever and the first woman to fill the office. But such challenges within the party have been rare. Former Mayor Robert Duffy, who preceded Richards, ran unopposed for re-election, yet like Warren and Johnson, failed initially to get the party endorsement.

"For an incumbent not to be endorsed by their party ... that would reinforce (party) division," said Duffy, president and CEO and president of Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce. "But while that would be unusual, that is just the start of the campaign. ... Right now, we are in March. And it’s a long way to September and November."

Warren spent Monday morning visiting local businesses that have benefitted from the city's new Kiva program, which offers zero-interest, crowdfunded microloans with city support. The program launched in August and, thus far, has funded 19 loans totaling $113,525. Of those funded, 68 percent are minority owned, and 42 percent are women-owned businesses.

Framing her case for four more years, Warren is highlighting new business and public safety initiatives, progress in jobs and unemployment, a crime rate that is at a 30-year low, future development and increases in pre-K enrollment.

She points to investment downtown but also in the neighborhoods, including the $50 million Upper Falls Square currently under construction at Hudson Avenue and Cleveland Street.

The 150-unit apartment complex offers a mix of market-rate and affordable units with on-site mental health and other support available for tenants. It is a project of the nonprofit DePaul Properties and developer Christa Construction. Warren came to the project's aid at at all levels of the project, over a two-year period, said Depaul President Mark Fuller, adding: "It would not be a project without the mayor."

While her challengers have characterized City Hall as rudderless and Rochester as complacent, the mayor argues that her administration has been progressive, and that the city is on the right track.

"We'll talk about our successes, and we won't be denied our record," Warren said of the campaign ahead.

In a statement, Sheppard countered Warren's touted crime rate, noting an uptick in homicides and "abysmal" clearance rate of murders, while repeating his characterization that Warren is taking credit for jobs and projects initiated by others. He criticized the "decaying relationships with neighborhood organizations and the lack of progress on jobs, poverty and education."

"I plan to operate with transparency," he said, "and embrace input from neighborhood organizations instead of pushing them away."

Barnhart, meanwhile, challenged both to present "serious plans to reduce poverty and grow the economy," noting her campaign's proposals for property tax reform, childcare funding, citywide fiber internet and a "jobs office."

White, who challenged Warren in 2013 as a Green Party candidate, announced his 2017 mayoral bid last week, urging voters to break from the status quo and choose an outsider. It is an identity Warren seems determined to claim for herself, despite being the incumbent who has long worked within the Democratic Party, and served as an elected official for the past decade, previously on City Council.

"I refuse to concede anything," she told supporters Monday, continuing later: "I am your Mayor, the People’s Mayor."

There was a time she sought to position herself as the education mayor. Three years later, she points to measured success in a school district over which the mayor has little influence, and that saw a prolonged leadership transition during her first term. The district recorded a 2-percentage-point increase in its on-time graduation rate last year, reaching 47.5 percent, but still lags behind the rest of the state's so-called "big five" large-city districts.

"We haven't gone backward," she said, referring to graduation rates, "and that's an improvement."

Going forward, Warren is talking about continuing education, particularly in technical skills, as an avenue where the city could assist and have a community impact.

"We are well on our way to our future," she said. "And that future Rochester is just as bright as our past."

BDSHARP@Gannett.com