Voters within the newly redrawn 44th Senate District made their voices heard on primary night.
Incumbent Senator Neil Breslin beat County Legislator Shawn Morse 15,645 to 6,392 votes. This will be Breslin’s ninth term in office. He now represents the 44th senate district, which encompasses Bethlehem, Colonie and the Cities of Albany, Troy and Rensselaer.
“I’m obviously very happy with the resounding nature of this win,” said Breslin.
Morse said he was disappointed in the results.
“I knew from the beginning that going up against a long-term incumbent with deep machine support would be a challenge, but it was always a challenge worth taking on,” said Morse in a release.
The candidate said he was proud of his campaign for not using personal attacks.
“We campaigned on the issues that really matter most to Capital Region families – ending unfunded mandates, lowering property taxes, rescuing our upstate cities and finally cleaning up the state legislature,” he said.
Earlier in the day, Breslin said the complete opposite about the Morse campaign, condemning his opponent’s approach.
“I wish there had been more of a focus on the issues, because calling me all kinds of names doesn’t help anyone,” he said.
In a statement, Breslin said he was honored by the support of the voters and will now “focus on improving the educational system for all New York’s children, helping working families, protecting women’s hard-won rights and making health care more affordable.”
“With the primary race over, I commend Mr. Morse for his spirited campaign. I look forward to continuing my efforts to ensure that the residents of the Capital Region, and all New Yorkers, have their rights and dignity protected by their state government,” he said.
Breslin said he is happy the primary is over because he feels they are harder to run than general election races.
“At least in theory, it’s an intra-family fight, between family members and you’re expected to … get along with them after.”
Fahy handily bests five others
Former Albany School Board member Patricia Fahy won the crowded Democratic primary race in the 109th Assembly District.
Six Democrats had been vying to succeed longtime Assemblyman Jack McEneny, including Fahy, County Legislator Christopher Higgins, Assistant Attorney General William McCarthy, former county Executive Jim Coyne, Frank Commisso Jr. and political newcomer Margarita Perez. Fahy won with 5,045 votes, with Commisso Jr. following closest with 2,443 votes. Higgins came up third with 2,221 votes, followed by McCarthy, Coyne and Perez in last place with 445 votes.
The newly redrawn district is comprised of the southwestern parts of the City of Albany and the towns of Guilderland, New Scotland and Bethlehem.
“It’s incredibly gratifying to win, especially with running a positive campaign and a grassroots campaign,” Fahy said. “It shows you can do this without the big money that some of my competitors had.”
According to Fahy, a majority of her contributions were in the amount of $109 or less.
Higgins congratulated Fahy in a release and said he looked forward to speaking with her about continuing to move the community forward, “such as making a county land bank a reality and ensuring our environment remains sustainable.” No other candidates returned calls for comment.
Fahy said her plan now is to focus more on the issues, which she said was hard to do in the primary with such a large candidate pool. Her priorities include education equality, raising the minimum wage, campaign finance reform, creating green jobs and equal pay initiatives. She is also calling for a change to the education property tax formula, which she said is extremely difficult to understand.
“I think residents understand the value of a quality education, but know it cannot and should be placed on the back of taxpayers to provide,” she said.
Fahy lost the Independence Party primary to Republican Candidate Ted Danz by a tally of 150 votes to 120 votes. In November’s general election she will face Danz and Conservative candidate Joseph Sullivan, who, according to unofficial returns, narrowly retained his line in the face of an opportunity to ballot write-in challenge.
