SCHENECTADY - Mayor Gary McCarthy won a second term as mayor, defeating Roger Hull in a rematch of the 2011 election.

With 100 percent of precincts reporting, McCarthy has about 54 percent of the vote and Hull has 45 percent. McCarthy led by 730 votes, according to unofficial elections returns.

McCarthy is trying to become the third Schenectady mayor in a row to win second, four-year terms. Mayor Albert Jurczynski, a Republican, won re-election, and Brian U. Stratton, a Democrat won a second term.

McCarthy defeated Hull by a narrow margin four years ago and the former Union College president decided to renew the rivalry this year. McCarthy, a Democrat, ran with the backing of the party and Hull was supported by the Republicans though he wasn't enrolled in the party.

McCarthy, 53, proclaimed that he's stabilized city finances, citing three budgets all under the tax cap that resulted in a healthy credit rating for Schenectady.

But his opponent Roger Hull, 73, said with the Democrat at the helm, debt has ballooned and the city has plunged off a fiscal cliff.

McCarthy said the city's biggest problem is distressed properties, a byproduct of the "mortgage meltdown."

"It's frustrating, it's time consuming, but if you do it right the first time, it produces long-term results of getting houses back on the tax rolls, putting families in them, and stabilizing our neighborhoods," the incumbent said.

Hull said high taxes, sagging home values, low graduation rates, and crime are all inextricably linked.

"I've had my career. I want simply to help the city I live in and the people living in it, nothing more nothing less," said Hull, 73, who also railed against one-party rule.