Tea Partier Busch garners 38 percent of vote
Jack McEeneny won yet another term in the state Assembly on Election Day, fending off a Republican challenge from Tea Party candidate Deborah Busch with a comfortable 62 percent of the vote, according to the unofficial tally.
It was a race that, like many others across the state, focused on how voters would respond to incumbents in a time when dissatisfaction with government is high. Like in many parts of the Capital District, though, McEneny remained safe.
He said voter awareness helped politicians here, where the populace knows the difference between legislators and the legislature.
I don’t think it played out in the Capital Region because up here politics and government are our major sport, McEneny said.
But the longtime legislator acknowledged Democratic turnout was not strong, while the Republican and Conservative lines had a better showing than usual (turnout was down considerably from 2008, which is not unusual for a midterm election).
`I think the Tea Party and the Conservatives did well in that they increased their turnout,` McEneny said. `I have never had more than 16,000 votes cast against me… Obviously some minds may have been changed, but from what I’m looking at a lot of Democrats stayed home.`
Busch said she was happy with the numbers, but not with the fact so many local Democrat incumbents were staying in office.
`I think I did pretty darn good as one person with a palm card and a message,` she said, adding that the Republican infrastructure in the 104th Assembly District, which includes part of the City of Albany, does not provide a lot of help and money for candidates.
Busch also ran for Albany County coroner in 2009, taking 44 percent of the vote in that election. She said she plans to run for office again, and predicted the Tea Party movement in the future will play an increasingly greater role in state politics and local organization.
`I think we need to now start planing years out,` she said. `We came in as political novices…We’ve got severe problems here in New York state and in Albany County in particular. We need to fix the Republican Party, and that’s what the Tea Party mission is going to be.`
For McEneny, the coming year brings a new gubernatorial administration and a new Senate, the composition of which is still in question. He said he will try to stay focused on addressing the state’s problems, including moving towards a `rational` tax cap with an incorporated circuit breaker.
`I think the No. 1 issue has always been the property tax in this area,` he said. `We don’t support either the schools or the county governments adequately, so they have to turn around and raise property tax.“
