[54] The party leaders approached Cleveland, and he agreed to run for Mayor of Buffalo, provided that the rest of the ticket was to his liking.[55] When the more notorious politicians were left off the Democratic ticket, Cleveland accepted the nomination.[55] Cleveland was elected mayor with 15,120 votes, as against 11,528 for Milton C. Beebe, his opponent.[56] He took office January 2, 1882.
Cleveland's term as mayor was spent fighting the entrenched interests of the party machines.[57] Among the acts that established his reputation was a veto of the street-cleaning bill passed by the Common Council.[58] The street-cleaning contract had been competed for bidding, and the Council selected the highest bidder at $422,000, rather than the lowest of $100,000 less, because of the political connections of the bidder.[58] While this sort of bipartisan graft had previously been tolerated in Buffalo, Mayor Cleveland would have none of it. His veto message said, "I regard it as the culmination of a most bare-faced, impudent, and shameless scheme to betray the interests of the people, and to worse than squander the public money."[59] The Council reversed itself and awarded the contract to the lowest bidder.