GOP voters to decide DA primary race today
BALLSTON SPA, N.Y. » Republicans will head to the polls from noon to 9 p.m. Thursday to vote in a primary for Saratoga County district attorney.
Saratoga Springs attorney Gerard Amedio is challenging incumbent Karen Heggen for the job, which has a four-year term and $150,000 annual salary.
No Democrats are running, so the primary essentially decides who holds the position for the next four years.
The contest has become heated in recent weeks as both camps have leveled serious accusations against the other.
Amedio has charged Heggen with mishandling cases and their respective crime victims.
“They deserve justice, not plea bargains that pad a prosecutor’s conviction rate,” he said in a statement. “We need a change in this office. Karen Heggen isn’t getting the job done right.”
In response, Heggen said, “Our job is to balance the interest of justice each and every day. I stand by all the dedicated men and women on my team who work with our law enforcement partners around the clock to keep Saratoga County safe.”
The county Republican Committee has endorsed Heggen’s campaign for re-election.
County GOP Chairman Carl Zeilman recently called for a state investigation into Amedio’s alleged mishandling of campaign finances, which were running in
the red. Zeilman also questioned Amedio’s ability to run the district attorney’s office, which has a roughly $4 million budget.
Amedio said his campaign has been largely selffinanced and downplayed Zeilman’s allegations.
“The state called us ... actually laughed about it and said, ‘It’s not a big deal,’” Amedio said.
Amedio is a former City of Rensselaer “Police Officer of the Year” and earned the Mark Goca Memorial Award for Leadership in 2001. A Saratoga Springs resident, he has practiced law in the Spa City since 2003 when he passed the bar.
He also was an adjunct professor of criminal justice at The Sage Colleges from 2003 to 2012.
A Malta resident, Heggen became acting district attorney on Sept. 18, 2014 when former DA James Murphy III resigned to pursue a new career as county court judge. She ran unopposed and was elected to a full four-year term in November 2014, and took office on Jan. 1, 2015.
She is the first woman to hold the position in Saratoga County.
Both candidates have denounced Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s executive order that gives sex-offender parolees voting rights by allowing them to cast ballots at school polling places after 7 p.m.
“This is another ill-conceived, unilateral and dangerous decision by Governor Cuomo without any regard for the safety of the citizens of our communities, both young and old,” Heggen said. “The governor’s timing and motives are transparently political.”
Cuomo, seeking re-election, is facing a challenge by Cynthia Nixon in a Democrat Party primary.
“Andrew Cuomo’s decision to allow sex offenders into schools is dangerous and disgusting,” Amedio said. “He is absolutely wrong on this issue just like he was wrong on the SAFE Act.”
In other statewide races, Democrats will also cast ballots for two other positions. Jumaane Williams is challenging incumbent Kathy Hochul for lieutenant governor, while candidates are running for state attorney general. They are Sean Patrick Maloney, Letitia A. James, Leecia R. Eve and Zephyr Teachout.
In the only other local primary, Keith Kissinger is running against incumbent John Fantauzzi for the Conservative Party line in the race for town justice in Ballston.