Republican Oberacker wins another term
KINGSTON, N.Y. >> A Republican state senator who fended off a primary in August has won re-election to the 51st Senate District, according to unofficial results from the state Board of Elections.
State Sen. Peter Oberacker, 59, of Schenevus in Otsego County, who was first elected in 2020, bested challenger Democrat Eric Ball of Walton in Delaware County, 72,650 votes to 43,757.
“Throughout the campaign I have crisscrossed the new 51st Senate District, spending time with local elected officials, small business owners, and citizens,” Oberacker said in a prepared statement. “The feedback I received was clear — a change is needed in Albany. I will spearhead that transformation, fighting back against rising spending, higher taxes, policies that put criminals first, and a failure to recognize our Constitutional rights.”
Oberacker ran under the Republican and Conservative banners. Ball held the Democratic line on the ballot.
The newly created 51st Senate District comprises the Ulster County towns of Olive, Marbletown, Rochester, Gardiner, Shawangunk, Wawarsing, Denning, and Hardenburgh, the village of Ellenville, and a portion of the town of Hurley, along with all of Sullivan, Otsego, Delaware, and Schoharie counties and parts of Broome and Chenago counties.
In an Aug. 23 primary, Oberacker fended off a challenge from former Ulster County Legislator Terry Bernardo for the GOP line in the race for the 51st Senate District.
Prior to his election to the state Senate, Oberacker was a member of the Otsego County Board of Representatives. He created FormTech Solutions in 2007 and built it into a multi-million dollar business, working with companies around the world to develop and incorporate new and innovative products and make them applicable in the food industry, according to his campaign website.
Oberacker is chairman of the state Senate’s Public Works Committee and vice chairman of the Administration Committee, Human Services, Negotiations, and Inter-Governmental Affairs committees.
Ball is a former Civil Service Employees Association member who had worked as a direct care aide, providing care to people with developmental disabilities. He has also managed small and agricultural businesses. A graduate of SUNY Oneonta, he currently serves on the Walton Board of Trustees.
Ball co-chaired Walton’s committee on police reform. He led a community forum and hearing which informed the community’s reform plan submitted to the state.