The contest between GOP Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco and Democratic venture capitalist Scott Murphy was too close to call after Tuesday’s special election, leaving thousands of absentee ballots to determine the outcome of the race in the coming weeks.
The unofficial tally on the evening of Tuesday, March 31, showed Murphy in the lead by just 59 votes, 77,344 to 77,285.
The earliest that the election will be decided is April 13, when overseas and military absentee ballots are due to county boards of elections. According to state Board of Elections spokesman Bob Brehm, 10,159 absentee ballots were issued, and 6,316 of those had been received by the end of Tuesday.
If the race remains tight, a recount will almost certainly follow, as the state Republican Committee has already obtained a court order to impound all paper ballots, and the process could stretch on even longer.
There is a court order to impound in the district, so it all depends on how long the process takes, said Brehm.
Despite the incredibly close race, both sides said they had confidence that a tally of absentee ballots will leave their candidate victorious. Though neither claimed victory or conceded defeat, they both gave upbeat speeches to their supporters on Tuesday night.
`They all said it couldn’t be done, but the people in this room and the voters of the 20th Congressional District said something different,` said Murphy from the Gideon Putnam Hotel in Spa State Park.
`I believe that when the smoke clears, we will have won a tremendous victory,` said Tedisco, who watched the results from the Holiday Inn in Saratoga Springs. `It has been said in the slogan of the last campaign, ‘yes we can,’ but now we will.`
Murphy’s camp did savor the swagger afforded by their lead ` however slight ` on Tuesday night. That contingent included Gov. David Paterson, who made an appearance later in the evening.
`This is not the end of the campaign, this is a prelude to the great service in the district by our new congressman, Scott Murphy,` he said.
In an end to his speech that seemed to mirror his own troubles, Paterson reminded listeners that Murphy had been down in the polls just weeks ago. `If you believe enough and you try hard enough, you can accomplish anything, and we just did,` he said.
As criticism grows over the closed nature of budget talks at the state capitol, however, Republicans argued that a Democratic plurality is not what citizens need in their legislatures.
`It’s important that we send Jim to Washington to restore some of the balance to the house,` said Saratoga Springs Mayor Scott Johnson. `The budget process is a prime example of what happens when you have an imbalance of power. The only time our government works well is when you have checks and balances.`
Saratoga County went for Tedisco, with an unofficial tally of 30,247 votes to 25,837.
Saratoga County Democratic Committee Chairman Larry Bulman said that the numbers in his county were not disappointing.
`I knew we weren’t going to win in Saratoga County. I would have liked to see us within 2,500 votes,` he said, adding that the party has made great gains in the 20th since the pre-Gillibrand era, when the seat was a Republican stronghold.
`If we can come within 12,000 to 13,000 votes in Saratoga County, we were doing better,` Bulman said of past performance in the district. `We’re going to bed happy.`
Both campaigns waged a hard-fought battle over the short span of time allowed in the special election, and those efforts extended into the last moments of the race.
Tedisco started an all-night final push on Monday evening with a `Night Shift` effort, as the candidate greeted night shift workers at Finch Paper in Glens Falls between touring 24-hour diners and stores. In the morning, he shook hands with commuters at the Crossing Park and Ride in Clifton Park before stopping at some of the district’s many diners and restaurants all day.
Murphy had the help of Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and House Majority Whip James Clyburn on the stump in the final few days of the race. His campaign also played up endorsements from President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, who taped a radio spot for Murphy.
Both candidates were out until polls closed at 9 p.m. on Tuesday in last-ditch efforts to rustle up votes.
John Herrick, the Saratoga Springs Republican Party chairman acknowledged the dead heat at the event.
`We knew it would be a tight race,` he said.
`We did not take a single vote for granted,` said Murphy campaign spokesman Ryan Rudominer after results began rolling in on Tuesday. `We knew that it would be an extremely close race. We feel great that it’s coming down to the wire against a 26-year politician.`
Murphy’s quick rise from obscurity to contender was not lost on the candidate himself.
`Who would have imagined eight weeks ago, when we were 25 points down in the polls, that the president would have endorsed our campaign?` said Murphy.
Despite a 70,000 Republican voter plurality in the 20th District, Tedisco said after his speech that he knew it would be a tight race.
`It’s the essence of the type of district that it was; they are very independent,` he said. `We had to win them back.`
The special election has garnered nation attention, in part because of the role issues like Obama’s economic stimulus package and AIG bailouts have played in the debate between the candidates. Some have suggested the results of this election will be a referendum on the administration’s economic policies, though that sentiment is hardly universal.
`We’ve been focused on the 20th Congressional District,` said Rudominer, while acknowledging that Murphy `has been extremely vocal in our support of President Obama’s jobs and economic recovery package.`
`After three months, people do appreciate what President Obama is doing,` said Murphy from the podium after the vote tally came in. `Everybody who voted for this campaign knows three things: that we can create jobs in Upstate New York, that we can turn this economy around and we can create a better future for our kids.`
Assuming all absentee ballots are returned, almost 26 percent of the electorate came out for the special election, when compared to November’s voter registration rolls. That’s in contrast to the 70 percent turnout in the 2008 general election.
Those who voted came to the polls after an onslaught of advertising unleashed by both candidates, although it is uncertain how much the ads (many of which were negative) helped either campaign. A Siena Research Institute poll released on Friday, March 27, indicated that ads from both campaigns soured voters to the candidate who ran it.
`It made it very difficult to decide what to do, so I had to go to other sources to find the real information,` said Gail Martin of Rexford after she cast her vote at the John McLane Hose Co. Fire House in Rexford.
Martin declined to say which candidate she voted for.
`It was negative and off-putting, even more so than the presidential race,` said Rexford resident Eugene White of the campaign. `The fact it’s so negative makes them seem desperate.`
White said he cast his vote for Murphy.
Meri Herold, also of Rexford, cast her vote for the Democratic candidate, but only because that’s her party affiliation.
`If I had my choice, I would have picked somebody else,` she said. `I think [the election] was a waste of money. They did all this campaigning when they could have done something else with it.`
Clifton Park resident Matt Rousseau cast his vote for Tedisco, and said that campaigning efforts didn’t factor into his decision at all.
`I don’t care if one tries to run a negative or positive campaign,` he said. `I look at the facts.`
Read next week’s Saratoga County editions of The Spotlight, or check www.spotlightnews.com for continuing developments in the special election.
` Nick Hall contributed to this report.
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