Republican holds lead in state Assembly race
Republican Chris Tague continues to lead the special election for the state’s 102nd Assembly District seat, but only 209 votes separate him from Democrat Aidan O’Connor.
On Monday, the Columbia County Board of Elections counted absentee and affidavit ballots, bringing Tague’s total votes to 8,723 and O’Connor’s to 8,514. Thirdparty candidate Wes Laraway was far behind with 1,819 votes.
In the Columbia count, O’Connor picked up 25 votes, while Tague received 12 and Laraway one.
On Tuesday, the Schoharie County Board of Elections will count the final absentee and affidavit ballots in the race. There were 364 absentee and 19 affidavit ballots submitted in Schoharie.
The 102nd Assembly District includes all of Greene and Schoharie counties; the town of Saugerties in Ulster County; the towns of Stockport and Stuyvesant in Columbia County; and parts of Otsego, Delaware and Albany counties.
On April 24, the day of the election, Tague, the town of Schoharie supervisor, led O’Connor, a Greene County legislator, by 288 votes, 8,547-8,259. Laraway had 1,809.
The Assembly seat was vacated last fall by Republican Peter Lopez when he became a regional administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He had held the seat since January 2007.
The winner of the special election will serve out the remainder of Lopez’s two-year term, which ends Dec. 31, and will have to run again in the November general election if he wants to keep the seat.