SCHENECTADY COUNTY County Democrats keep majority Five of eight contested seats retained by party BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter
Democrats retained their 11-4 majority on the Schenectady County Legislature in balloting Tuesday, beating back a determined effort by Republicans. In unofficial results, Democrats won five of eight contested seats, and they may pick up another seat in District 4 — Rotterdam, Duanesburg and Princetown — depending on 277 absentee ballots there. Democrat incumbent Anthony Jasenski was the top vote-getter in District 4, receiving 4,758 votes. Angelo Santabarbara, a Republican newcomer, came in second with 4,698 votes. Democrat Robert Godlewski, making his first bid for a county seat, was third with 4,524 votes, and Republican incumbent Carolina Lazzari was fourth with 4,273 votes. Schenectady County Republican Election Commission Arthur Brassard said second place “is a horse race between three candidates.” Democratic Election Commissioner Brain Quail said, “Mr. Jasenski is beyond reach, and Mr. Godlewski will be successful [after the absentee ballots are tallied].” Brassard said the Board of Elections has nine days to certify the results. It will begin canvassing votes today and will open the ballots later this week. Lazzari said she was disappointed by the results and blamed the outcome on a negative campaign run by Democrats. “All the negative campaigning,” she said. “They trashed my name and all that mud they splashed on me, it stuck.” She said people were turned off by the campaign and told her they weren’t going to vote because “everything was muddy and negative.” won on the battleground of ideas,” he said. Democratic County Legislator Edward Kosiur gloated over Lazzari’s loss, cheering and leading the Democrats in shouting “Good-bye!” as the election results came in at Hibernian Hall. “Isn’t that a beautiful thing,” he said, when she came in last. Kosiur did not seek re-election to the county Legislature. He instead ran in — and lost — the bitterly contested race for Paul Tonko's state assembly seat in the 105th district. He has since become the Democrats point man for attacks on Republicans. OUTGUNNED, OUTSPENT Republican county Legislator Joseph Suhrada, R-Rotterdam, said Democrats “outgunned, outmanned and outspent” Republicans in the District 4 race. “If it was an evenly matched contest, we would have contested race for Paul Tonko’s state Assembly seat in the 105th District. He has since become the Democrats’ point man for attacks on Republicans. Lazzari also opposed Kosiur’s legislation to place residency restrictions on convicted sex offenders. Kosiur used the issue to launch his Assembly bid, but ran into serious opposition among residents of the suburban towns. Elsewhere, Democrats won both seats in each of District 2 and in District 1, both within the city. In District 2, incumbent Democrat Gary Hughes and newcomer Jeffrey McDonald defeated former mayor Albert Jurczynski by a ratio of nearly 3-to-1. The unofficial results are: Hughes, 3,650; McDonald, 3,261; and Jurczynski, 1,306. Many Democrats at the Hibernians Hall also cheered Jurczynski’s defeat. Kosiur said he was hoping for more than just a loss. “The question is, will he break a thousand?” he said as Jurczynski’s votes slowly crept toward the four-digit mark. Mayor Brian U. Stratton said voters blamed Jurczynski for Schenectady’s “financial ruin.” “I think they rejected the policies of the past,” Stratton said after Jurczynski lost. “They don’t want to go back to the old people and policies of the past.” In District 1, Democratic incumbents Vincent DiCerbo and Michael Petta ran unopposed. Hughes won a second four-year term. Republicans retained both seats in District 3, representing Glenville and Niskayuna. Robert Farley, minority leader in the Legislature, and James Burhmaster defeated Democratic challengers William Chapman and Paul Webster. The unofficial results are: Farley, 6,952; Buhrmaster, 6,747; Chapman, 5,609; Webster, 5,168. Farley will begin his fifth term Jan. 1, Buhrmaster his second.
Democratic County Legislator Edward Kosiur gloated over Lazzari’s loss, cheering and leading the Democrats in shouting “Good-bye!” as the election results came in at Hibernian Hall. “Isn’t that a beautiful thing,” he said, when she came in last. Kosiur did not seek re-election to the county Legislature. He instead ran in — and lost — the bitterly contested race for Paul Tonko's state assembly seat in the 105th district. He has since become the Democrats point man for attacks on Republicans.
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Many Democrats at the Hibernians Hall also cheered Jurczynski’s defeat. Kosiur said he was hoping for more than just a loss. “The question is, will he break a thousand?” he said as Jurczynski’s votes slowly crept toward the four-digit mark.
Kosiur is a gracious loser. His day of defeat will come ... again.
"If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them, they must become happy."
Hearty congratulations to Angelo Santabarbara, he worked hard and prevailed. My regrets to Carolina Lazzari who worked just as hard and was just as deserving to represent the people in District 4. This is a huge loss for Duanesburg as Carolina was our true advocate on the county leg. Angelo has big shoes to fill and I'm sure he will do a fine job. According to the preliminary figures both Carolina and Angelo won all five districts in Duanesburg. As for the other winner, his disgrace of a campaign and lack of character will follow him to the hills he is supposed to represent. The sad fact of the matter is "dirty campaigning" and lies work. It is a sad commentary to our society.
It'll be interesting to see what he does on the NYSDL, since the other week he said that he didn't want it in the paper that he was for the licenses. The elections over, time to flip flop.
Proud Rotterdam Resident Proud Patriot Proud Conservative Republican Proud Christian
Democratic County Legislator Edward Kosiur gloated over Lazzari’s loss, cheering and leading the Democrats in shouting “Good-bye!” as the election results came in at Hibernian Hall. “Isn’t that a beautiful thing,” he said, when she came in last.
WOW...I guess Kosiur took this personally, huh? And what a class act..NOT! It must be easy for a slug like Kosiur to sit on the sidelines of a political election and critisize the candidates. And Eddy I think you need a little reminder that you were NEVER in an elected position. They have all been by 'appointments' by the dictators. It is your dictator cronies that have kept you where you are. You clearly have no merit of your own to speak of. Eddy, you lost miserably in the state assembly election. And you lost to a candidate with NO political experience at all. Eddy, you are clearly NOT electable...just appointable. I have always seen the dems as a party who lacked any class. Clearly with lack of interpersonal skills as well as the ability to govern. The bottom feeders of politics! And Eddy, you just proved that to be true!
Better yet, since the "Wicked Witch of the East" (County Board Chair Susan Savage) wasn't there, you should have seen Eddie sitting in the "seat of power" last night.
Proud Rotterdam Resident Proud Patriot Proud Conservative Republican Proud Christian
Correct District 4 vote totals give Santabarbara lead SCHENECTADY — Correction of a transcription error has given Republican Angelo Santabarbara the unofficial lead in the District 4 race for Schenectady County Legislature. The district consists of Rotterdam, Princetown and Duanesburg. The board of elections reported a worker on election night mistakenly transposed totals from a voting machine, giving Democrat Anthony Jasenski more votes than he earned. After the board of elections canvassed the machines Wednesday and Thursday, the new totals put Santabarbara first with 4,709 votes and Jasenski second with 4,677 votes. There are still about 277 absentee ballots to be tallied, but they will not change the results. Santabarbara and Jasenski will remain the top vote-getters, although their positions may switch once again when results are certified next week. After Tuesday’s results, election commissioners said they believed Jasenski would remain first and that the absentee ballots would cause a horse race for second place between Santabarbara and Democrat Robert Godlewski. Godlewski is now out of the picture completely, as is Republican Carolina Lazzari, who came in last among the field of four seeking two seats in District 4.
It is a super long day for the election inspectors, they are dragging their butts by the time 9PM rolls around. It's undstandable how a mistake like this can be made. I'm glad we have the checks and balances of canvassing the machines later. Congratulations Angelo....I think!!
Congratulations to Mr. Santabarbara. He worked hard for this victory. He and his campaign committee deserved to end up on top!
The results clearly show that minor party endorsements CAN make a difference in a close race. Both Santabarbara and Jasenski appeared on the Conservative party line. Santabarbara and Lazzari waged a write-in ballot candidacy for the Conservative party endorsement. Unfortunately, Lazzari came up a bit short after many of the write in ballots supporting her were disqualified. Had Lazzari been an announced candidate at the time that the Conservative party endorsements were initially awarded, I am confident that she and Santabarbara would both be our elected District 4 Legislators. Lazzari's knowledge, professionalism, and representation will be missed. I hope that she will remain involved and run again in 2009.
Election Day 2007 is over. Time to begin setting our sites on those (many) Legislature seats that are up for bids in 2009. I believe that the Republicans may decide that it IS worth the effort to fight for the endorsements of the minor parties and to run candidates in districts with enrolled Democratic voter majorities. Though Mayor Al didn't win, I believe that a stronger candidate could have won in District 2. I hope that my Conservative party will decide to award its endorsements to candidates with conservative ideology. And, if an unopposed candidate does not hold conservative values, then no endorsement should be made in the race. I was surprised to see that the Conservative party endorsed candidates in EVERY race that was waged, despite several in which liberal Democrats ran unopposed.
"If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them, they must become happy."
I am glad that Ms.Lazzari has helped and represented the people of Duanesburg. Really I am. But I am a little reluctant with her decision making in Rotterdam. From what I hear, and I could be wrong here, but I believe that she played a major roll in the RPD's contract, which allowed the inflated overtime that would insure the cops to have a larger pension. Some things that she did was favorable and some things she did was questionable.
And I too, hope that the conserv's get their act together. I am totally in agreement with Brad's assessment of the future of the conservative party.
I can't speak of her representation for Rotterdam.... but hey how 'bout that new guy? Anthony Jesenski. Yeah, the one who voted in favor of sending sex offenders to our communities just one night after being appointed to the legislature? Yeah, you know, just a few months after the county leg changed the rules for appointing members to replace those legislators who move on to bigger and better jobs, knowing full well a replacement was needed for Kent. He should work out REAL WELL for us. I would think Rotterdam will be at greater risk for an influx of sex offenders than D'burg. Yeah, he should work out real well. Fill the mailboxes with the deceitful junk that he did and run to hide behind the skirts of the County Democratic Committee. He had the nerve to send a flier to D'burg residents indicating Carolina wanted to SEND sex offenders to the towns. I sure didn't see him muster the courage to vote against the law back in June or abstain from the vote. The only one of our representatives who had that courage was Carolina. It is water over the dam or under the bridge (or where ever it is water goes at a time like this) now. I will anxiously await true representation for his constituents in D'burg.
Brad, you should get in touch with Randy Pascarella and discuss your vision. He seems like an amicable guy and might welcome your ideas as well as a point man in D'burg.
At least we can be thankful that we didn't get both Jasenski and Godlewski. Remember that Mr. Godlewski skirted the sex offender issue entirely. And if he were elected, we can be sure he would have been lock step with the rest of the democratic leadership and voted in favor of the proposed law.
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