After a nail-biting evening, Republicans in the 43rd Senate District still don’t know who their next standard bearer is.
At the Holiday Inn on Broadway in Saratoga Springs on primary night, all eyes were glued to a screen as results from the primary race rolled in. The supporters of incumbent Roy McDonald gathered there likened it to watching a horse race, and by night’s end the only thing clear was the contest with Saratoga County Clerk Kathleen Marchione would be a photo finish.
The unofficial result of the Thursday, Sept. 13, primary put the two candidates only 138 votes apart — Marchione with 6,817 and McDonald with 6,679. The margin is well within the more than 1,000 absentee ballots distributed before the election.
“Now we have a nail biter, it’s kind of exciting. We’ll have absentee ballots that have to come in and I think we should turn around and reflect a little bit that this is a great country and that’s what this is all about is democracy,” McDonald said as numbers were still rolling in on election night.
The newly drawn district is home to four different counties that will all count their absentee ballots on different schedules. In Saratoga County, where as of Tuesday, Sept. 18, 404 ballots had been received, ballots postmarked before election day will be accepted until Thursday, Sept. 20, after which they will be opened and tallied.
In Columbia County, 100 ballots had been received as of Tuesday. In Rensselaer County 321 were returned and in Washington County 20 had been sent back.
It is clear Marchione bested Edward Gilbert for the Conservative line, however. McDonald will also appear on the Independence line in November’s general election.
On election night, McDonald thanked his supporters and put a positive spin on the coming waiting game.
“I sure hope I win, I think I will – but you never know. We’re going to be thinking about this for a long time to come as part of an exciting election primary process. This is only part of the way. Nov. 6 is still the main objective,” said McDonald, which drew cheers from his supporters.
When asked why he thought the race was so close, McDonald said he didn’t know but if somebody found out, to please let him know.
Marchione’s camp had similar thoughts after seeing the results.
“We expect counting will proceed in an orderly and fair process, and we’re cautiously optimistic that Kathy will be victorious when all the votes are counted. Kathy is excited about moving forward to the next phase of the campaign and talking to the voters about how we can lower taxes, put New York back to work and clean up Albany,” said Ken Girardin, a spokesman for Marchione, in a statement.
The close call comes after a contentious race between McDonald and Marchione. While McDonald and Gilbert took part in an amicable forum on Thursday, Sept. 7, a debate between McDonald and Marchione on Monday, Sept. 11, was at times heated. Many have painted the senator as vulnerable after he cast a key vote in support of same sex marriage in New York, and some GOP leaders in the district cited that moment as the reason they dropped support for him this year.
Primary night brought out many of McDonald’s supporters including Town of Stillwater Supervisor Ed Kinowski. He summed up the race as “challenging, to say the least.”
“Quite frankly, I firmly believe Roy to be the choice and I hope it comes out that way. It’s just the way I feel. I think that Roy has the experience certainly, and I think people are taking (heart with) one vote that was very controversial but he still put his best foot forward as he felt to make the right choice,” said Kinowski.
Town of Ballston Supervisor Patti Southworth, the chairwoman of the Saratoga County Independence Committee, said McDonald has always been honest and used integrity and often made tough decisions that others wouldn’t have.
“He’s that guy that you can always reach out to whether you’re in office or just his neighbor,” he said.
Longtime Saratoga County Republican Committee chairman John ‘Japser’ Nolan, who is set to retire in just a few weeks, was among the many who came out Thursday night as well and said that the party was confident but never overconfident.
“Roy’s team worked very hard … hopefully their efforts will result in a victory. You never get overconfident because you never know who’s going to get out and vote,” said Nolan.
