After a contentious campaign against a former opponent, Albany County District Attorney David Soares scored a big win on a big night in Albany and was overwhelmingly re-elected to another four-year term.
Challenger Republican Roger Cusick ran on the Integrity line against the Democrat and netted several big endorsements by the local service unions but ultimately lost the race by 29,128 votes to 80,441 votes.
Soares appeared to be running unopposed during the summer, but Republicans mounted an aggressive campaign against him and created the Integrity Party to challenge him late in the political season.
Cusick used critical audits by Democratic Albany County Comptroller Michael Conners as fodder to accuse Soares of mishandling public funds in the weeks leading up to Tuesday’s election.
In the opponents’ only public debate at Albany Law School in October, Cusick repeatedly referred to Conners’ audits and made the case that Soares was abusing his public position by using poor financial controls.
Cusick called Soares a headline chaser and said the district attorney was using his office to push a personal political agenda and philosophy instead of prosecuting criminals. He also argued that with Albany County being the seat of state government, an opposing political party should being sitting in the prosecution’s chair to serve as a watchdog and a check and balance.
`We need a prosecutor in this county, not traveling all over the country,` Cusick said at the debate, referring to Soares’ high-profile work in a steroids case in Florida and frequent visits to other municipalities around the nation and Canada. `Who’s doing the prosecuting? Someone’s got to be back in the office prosecuting cases. Mr. Soares has developed a reputation of seeking headlines over safety.`
In the end, the attack wasn’t enough to upset the first-term incumbent on a night when Democrats swept the nation and the state as voters woke up after Election Day to find the first Democratic New York Senate since the 1960s and a new Democratic president.
Democrats also widened their control in Congress, picking up a handful of new seats.
With more than 70 percent of the vote in his favor, Soares spoke to supporters at Jillian’s Restaurant in Albany, which was the local headquarters for now President-elect Barack Obama’s campaign. It was a historic night as Democratic supporters were engaged in a boisterous celebration watching the national results roll in.
When key battleground states like Pennsylvania and Ohio went for Obama, the crowd exploded into cheers and revelry and Soares played to the crowd telling them they were witnessing history as the country elected its first black president. Soares is Albany County’s first black district attorney.
He told supporters that `scare tactics` used by his opponent and the Republicans supporting him did not sway voters.
Cusick, who was watching the results at Albany’s Hibernian Hall, blamed his substantial loss on the national Democratic fervor.
On Friday, Nov. 7, following the election, Soares released a letter to the executive director, James Lyman, and union president, Christian Mesley, of Council 82, the local police union that backed Cusick in the race. Soares alleges that the two made false accusations and `smear tactics` in the union’s endorsement of his opponent.
`Jim Lyman and Christian Mesley have misled the public ` and, unfortunately, some of their own members ` with allegations that at best are disingenuous and at worst, outright untrue,` Soares wrote. `It seems as though the leadership of Council 82 is more concerned with political sensationalism than upholding the rights and benefits of the men and women who put their lives on the line every day to keep our communities safe.`
Along with Council 82, which serves many of the local police departments, including Albany’s, Cusick picked up the endorsement of two other large civil service unions, the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (ASFCME).
Soares said he is planning several technology-centered initiatives in the coming years to help engage the public’s help in reporting and solving area crimes.
He also said his focus will remain on taking guns out of the hands of inner-city Albany youths and getting drunk drivers off the roadways throughout the county.“
