ITHACA, N.Y.—At least two incoming Common Council members, both Cornell University students, appear to have played early advisory or support roles in Cornell senior Patrick Kuehl’s controversial surprise write-in campaign. Multiple accounts show Kuehl and his allies originally intended to field other Cornell students as write-in candidates in Wards Four and Five as well.
Kuehl burst into Ithaca’s public eye on election night with a write-in campaign that ultimately unseated incumbent Jorge DeFendini by a nine vote margin in a race that saw just 100 total votes. A bloc of voters recruited from two Cornell fraternities appear to have played a crucial role in Kuehl’s victory.
Kuehl did not formally announce his campaign, and did not release details about his policy positions until about a week after Election Day, leading to accusations that he kept his bid for office secret in order to take advantage of the Fourth Ward’s notoriously low voter turnout. Kuehl, who is set to graduate in six months, said he is uncertain he’ll serve the full four-year term. Until now, none of his supporters have been willing to comment on record.
But multiple accounts now suggest that the two other students vying for a seat on Common Council — Alderperson Tiffany Kumar and Alderperson-elect Clyde Lederman — advised and helped plan the write-in campaign that would win Kuehl a four-year seat on council.
Lederman, a sophomore at Cornell, just secured a two-year term on the city Common Council in a tight race. Kumar, a senior at Cornell who has been on council since the start of 2023, ran unopposed to represent the Fourth Ward for two more years.
Like others, the two have previously sought to publicly distance themselves from Kuehl, whose unconventional tactics have been the subject of intense criticism, particularly since his slim victory was confirmed last week.
But in a Nov. 22 statement, Kumar said Lederman approached her to set up a meeting between Lederman, Kumar, Kuehl and then-Third Ward candidate Pierre St. Perez — a graduate student at Cornell’s Law school — some time after the primary election in June. Kumar said the four discussed constituent concerns about the Solidarity Slate, a local socialist political group, as well as a potential write-in campaign to unseat Slate member DeFendini—though she said at that point, Kuehl hadn’t yet committed to be the candidate.
Kuehl said he only decided to run as the write-in candidate on Oct. 22. But Lederman and Kuehl appear to have been working together since at least August to field other write-in candidates in both the Fourth and Fifth Wards.
In August, Lederman and Kuehl approached another Cornell student, Nick Wilson. Wilson, who has since penned an op-ed calling Kuehl’s tactics “undemocratic,” said the two asked him if he’d be interested in running for Common Council as a write-in candidate in the Fifth Ward. Wilson said he declined and largely hadn’t heard from either Lederman or Kuehl since.
The two appear to have approached a number of other students besides Wilson, though ultimately only Kuehl went through with the write-in bid.
Once Kuehl had committed to run, Lederman called Fourth Ward residents to ask that they vote for Kuehl as a write-in candidate, per an anonymous student who said they had received a call from Lederman.
Wilson and others described Lederman and Kuehl, who both serve on Cornell’s Student Assembly, as particularly close.
“I know Clyde [Lederman] has publicly denied any involvement in this,” Wilson said. “I think, to anyone present on campus who knows either Clyde or Patrick, the idea that Clyde was uninvolved in this is laughable. The two are attached at the hip. And [Tiffany Kumar] works closely [with them] both on Student Assembly and political matters.”
Alderperson Ducson Nguyen, who supported Lederman’s campaign, said the Cornell sophomore was involved in the write-in effort and that Lederman “knew about it the whole time.” The Ithaca Voice obtained first-hand accounts that corroborate Nguyen’s statement.
When approached with these findings, Lederman declined to speak on the record.
In talks with Lederman and Kuehl, Kumar said she “made it clear that [she] would not endorse any candidate running against a Democratic nominee” but said that she agreed to offer advice and “introduce Kuehl to several Ward Four voters and city public officials so he could share his ideas.”
The Ithaca Voice spoke to several individuals who said they had been approached by Kumar and Kuehl, including former Fourth Ward councilmember Graham Kerslick. Kerslick said the two approached him at his home on Oct. 20, seeking “feedback” from him on Kuehl’s write-in campaign.
Kerslick declined to say who he voted for, but he said that he found the way Kuehl ran his write-in campaign “concerning.”
“I think it’s important to give whoever you represent in a district the opportunity to see where [you are], and what your priorities are, give them the opportunity to make an informed decision,” Kerslick said. “I don’t think you get that with a write-in campaign, especially one that isn’t really promoted and available for people to have a close look at.”
Kuehl previously described Kumar as a “supporter” in an email to The Ithaca Voice on Nov. 8. In an interview with The Ithaca Voice later that day, Kumar disputed the use of the word “supporter” but said that she was glad that Kuehl was challenging DeFendini.
In her Nov. 22 statement, she said that she “was not involved in deciding overall campaign strategy, [she] just gave field advice,” which she said she has done for others in the past.
“I’ve always been happy to help facilitate community involvement,” Kumar said. “Many people came to me for similar advice throughout the last year.”
Records from the Tompkins County Board of Elections show the two were registered to vote at the same address, though Kumar said they each rent separate units but share a kitchen. Kumar described Kuehl as a “friend and a neighbor of mine” in her Nov. 22 statement.
“I will say that Kuehl, in the time that I’ve known him as a friend, a neighbor and as an organizer, has backed up his progressive beliefs with action,” Kumar said. “He was a frontline worker, a first responder in this community. He’s the one who fought hard to unionize his fellow paramedics. He told me that he was passionate about his campaign because he has seen his neighbors suffer and even die.”
In a 90-minute interview on Nov. 16, Kuehl told The Ithaca Voice that he considered both Lederman and Kumar “good friend[s],” but downplayed Lederman’s involvement in his campaign.
Kuehl said that his conversations with Kumar, among others, “definitely shaped” his critical view of the Solidarity Slate, which he cited as a major motivator for his campaign.
Kumar previously had backing from the Solidarity Slate in the months leading up to last year’s election. Two of the groups behind the Slate, the Ithaca Tenants Union and the Ithaca Democratic Socialists, rescinded their endorsement of Kumar on Nov. 4 2022, several days before the special election that won her a seat on council. A statement cites “concerns regarding the candidate’s conduct.” Kumar did not offer a public explanation at the time.
Kuehl’s own story of why he chose to run for office starts with at least “two permanent residents” of the Fourth Ward who encouraged him to run, but who Kuehl has declined to name.
“They feel like they will openly support me when they feel like they are comfortable putting their names out there,” Kuehl said. “But they don’t want to be known at this time.”
Kuehl said he understood why his supporters have sought to distance themselves from his campaign, but said he thinks their reticence has hurt his image.
“I think that if I had all of those people who supported me privately — if they were all out writing op-eds, and speaking publicly, I think that I would look much better right now, but I don’t,” Kuehl said. “And that’s their choice. I’m standing here and that’s okay.”
Kuehl has maintained that he never sought to keep his campaign a secret. He said that he was “just going up to tables at Collegetown Bagels” when he was canvassing and “didn’t see a point” in announcing his candidacy to the media.
“I was like, ‘I mean one of these tables I’m talking to is going to know Jorge [DeFendini] or like someone at The [Ithaca] Voice, or someone,’” Kuehl said.
When he first was contacted by reporters following Election Day, Kuehl said that he had been speaking with members of the Ithaca community for a month and a half leading up to Election Day. But a Cornell Daily Sun report showed he had denied running for office when asked as late as Oct. 11, and Kuehl subsequently stated he had finalized his decision to run on Oct. 22.
His shift in answers has become a sharp point of criticism.
In her statement, Kumar said that she was “not involved in drafting any statements made to the press” on Kuehl’s behalf and that she believes “it is wrong for candidates or electeds to lie to reporters or the public, and I would never agree to do so.”
“An entirely legal but embarrassing sh*t show”
Kuehl’s campaign has captured the attention of Ithaca’s political landscape — and with the attention has come scrutiny and criticism. .
In a statement to The Ithaca Voice, Nguyen shared one of the most pointed rebukes of Kuehl’s write-in campaign, calling it an “entirely legal but embarrassing sh*t show unbecoming of the honor of servicing the residents of Ithaca.”
“It’s a small city,” Nguyen said. “Residents inside and outside our little wards deserve better than a campaign whose timeline, positions, and supporters were shrouded in mystery for over a week after the election. I condemn these tactics.”
Some council members, like Alderperson Kris Haines-Sharp, expressed dismay at the way that Kuehl and those connected to his campaign have handled the fallout in the days since the election.
“I used to teach high school and I was an administrator in high school. This is like ninth grade [behavior] in my opinion,” Haines-Sharp said.
Linda Hoffmann, chair of the Tompkins County Democratic Committee (TCDC), told The Ithaca Voice that the TCDC’s officers are planning a meeting to discuss Kuehl’s campaign as well as the years’ election results.
In her own view, Hoffmann said the way Kuehl’s campaign was conducted “wasn’t in the best interest of being democratic.” Hoffman also expressed concern at the prospect that Kuehl may not be willing or able to finish out the full council term.
“If you are in any way serious about running as a candidate, you would want to make sure that you are going to be able to serve out that term if you are elected,” Hoffmann said.
Former alderperson Seph Murtagh, who served for 10 years on council, noted that students have won seats on Ithaca’s Common Council in years past, particularly in the Fourth Ward: DeFendini was a senior at Cornell when he was elected into office in 2021. But Murtagh described this year’s Fourth Ward election as a “clown show” and an “anomaly.”
Murtagh said he’s seen several write-in campaigns play out in local politics, but Kuehl’s is unique for its lack of publicity.
“What makes this different is that people didn’t know about it, and that is a problem,” Murtagh said. “I do think it does create a little bit of a screwy precedent, because you could just round up a core group of supporters, that’s kind of private or secret, almost, and then sway an election.”
Affidavit and absentee ballots obtained by The Voice through a public records request show that Kuehl appears to have amassed a core group of supporters in two fraternities: Sigma Phi and Delta Kappa Epsilon. Lederman appears to have gained similar support from members of other fraternities and sororities as well.
At least 15 people residing at addresses that correspond to the fraternities requested absentee ballots. While it’s not clear who the fraternity brothers voted for, Kuehl is designated on application forms as the person authorized to deliver the ballots. The votes of the fraternity brothers exceed Kuehl’s margin of victory, as was first reported by The Cornell Daily Sun.
One member of Sigma Phi spoke with The Ithaca Voice on the condition of anonymity. He said that he voted for Kuehl after someone else at Sigma Phi led the effort to get residents of the fraternity registered to vote. He said he didn’t know DeFendini “that well,” but that voting for Kuehl “was an easy choice.”
Kuehl’s “uncertain” future in Ithaca
Jorge DeFendini, Kuehl’s soon-to-be-predecessor, has criticized Kuehl for “cloak and dagger, secretive behavior” and called on him to step down in order to face him in an open election, which would likely be held in November 2024.
Kuehl told The Ithaca Voice in an interview that he has no intention of heeding DeFendini’s call, though he said he did entertain a “passing thought” on election night that he might decline the seat if DeFendini called him and “had a civil conversation.”
“If I step down right now, there wouldn’t be another election until next November and that feels ridiculous,” Kuehl said. “If there was an election next November for the four year seat, I definitely wouldn’t run then. And so I’m gonna do my work that I’ve set out to do now.”
Kuehl has consistently described his future in Ithaca “uncertain” beyond his graduation in six months.
He said his initial hesitancy to commit to finishing out his term came from his status as a finalist for the Marshall Scholarship, but since the election he said he learned that he was passed over for the prestigious award.
“Currently, my only plan after I graduate is to continue serving on Council,” Kuehl said. “I have no plan to leave Ithaca at this time.”
Kuehl said he did not have any outstanding applications for jobs, scholarships or other opportunities outside of Ithaca. However, during his interview with The Ithaca Voice, Kuehl would not commit to staying in Ithaca for all four years of his term.
The criticism that Kuehl has received from some council members is not lost on him. He said he expects there to be some animosity between himself and the two elected members of the Solidarity Slate — Alderperson Phoebe Brown and Alderperson-elect Kayla Matos — come January, but said he is willing to work collaboratively.
“I think that the first step is really just being able to have conversations with people and sit down face to face and talk through some of the differences,” Kuehl said. “Come to the table and say, ‘Okay, well, we’re all here now. So let’s work together.’”
Ithaca’s Mayor-elect Rob Cantelmo told The Ithaca Voice that “[Kuehl’s] campaign was not run the way that I choose to run my races.” But he also cautioned that “the strength of our system depends on respecting and accepting all legitimate results, win, lose, or draw.”
Kuehl’s contentious victory figures into a Common Council poised to undergo major turnover. Nguyen, who was elected unopposed to another four-year term on Election Day, has been on council since 2016 and will stand as its most senior member come 2024. The ten-member council will have six new members taking office with the new year, and three of its members will have finished out their first terms.
Cantelmo, who has served on council since the start of 2022, called the upcoming changes “monumental,” and said that Ithaca “needs its council members, and the mayor to work closely together” to oversee the city.
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