Anyone in the neighborhood of the Sons of Italy on Vine Avenue in Sharon Tuesday night could hear cheering and clapping coming from inside.

The cheering was for the city's mayor-elect, Democrat David O. Ryan. By a nearly 2-to-1 vote of 2,739 to 1,431, Ryan defeated Councilman Lou Rotunno for the post, which was up for grabs for the first time in more than two decades.

Ryan, 62, said he wasn't surprised at the outcome. "I was expecting a significant difference in the vote totals," he said.

The sound of the crowd was deafening when totals from the final precinct came in, sealing Ryan's victory.

"What can I say but thank you," Ryan told his supporters. "This isn't about me. It's about the city of Sharon, and the good Democrats and Republicans that backed me in the race."

"I think the best man won," said Victoria Daugherty. "We're so proud of Dave Ryan. He's a good man, and I think he'll do a lot for the city."

Outgoing Mayor Robert T. Price, who has held the post since 1978, said he extended an invitation to the winner -- whoever it was -- to spend the next two months working with him. Price filed for re-election in the spring but dropped out for health reasons before the primary.

Ryan, the city controller and a former police chief, plans to accept Price's offer.

"He has a vast knowledge of the city," Ryan said. "I sure don't want to let that go to waste or be lost."

Rotunno, 58, a registered Democrat who won a write-in campaign in the primary to win the Republican nomination, said he was disappointed by the loss but knew he was "swimming upstream" throughout the campaign.

"I thought I'd give people a chance to have a choice and they did. They supported Dave Ryan," Rotunno, a retired salesman, said. He added that running on the Republican ticket affected the outcome because Sharon is primarily Democratic. "I was running against a well-oiled machine," he said of the city's Democratic Committee.

Rotunno also said negative campaigning may have worked against him. He said Ryan supporters insinuated he wasn't honest.

The race split local Democrats, some of whom supported Rotunno's Republican run. The Sharon Democratic Committee asked the state party to investigate Councilman Raymond Fabian because Fabian, a Democratic committeeman, serves as Rotunno's campaign treasurer, an apparent violation of committee bylaws.

Also, several Democratic city officials, including Council President Fred Hoffman and newly elected controller Nick Morocco, refused to have their names printed on advertisements paid for by the Sharon Democratic Committee. Hoffman and Morocco alleged the committee was involved in negative campaigning on behalf of Ryan. Neither would define what they meant by negative campaigning.

While it may have divided the party, the race multiplied the number of people voting. About 47 percent of the city's 8,869 voters turned out Tuesday.

Glenn Morris, local committee treasurer, said Ryan's win is a "big victory for the Democrats." Despite the internal conflict, he said, "We had some good people on our side."

Morris said he didn't appreciate the "bad politics" in the race.

"The outcome (of the election) certainly had something to say to somebody. The cream always surfaces to the top."

In case of problems at the polls District Attorney James Epstein and Mercer County Sheriff William Romine patrolled the precincts. Epstein said there were no problems and poll workers on both sides were very courteous.

A man at one of the polls was passing out what Epstein described as a caricature of a man dragging his wife at knifepoint to vote for Ryan. The cartoon was signed "Lou" in the corner but Epstein stressed that neither Rotunno nor his campaign members were responsible for it.

"It was someone who was exercising his First Amendment rights in a mischievous way," Epstein said.

Rotunno still has two years on his council term and said he will probably seek re-election. "I'm not going anywhere," he said.

Ryan thanked his wife, Yvonne, his campaign treasurer Wendy McCarthy and his "unofficial secretary" Judy Rogers for their help, along with the thousands of voters who supported him. "Without them this victory wouldn't have been possible," he said.