In a too-close-to-call race, Democrat David Stott was behind by 31 votes for District 4 seat of the Onondaga County Legislature after a rematch against Republican incumbent Judy Tassone.
“This race isn’t over yet,” Stott said as he gathered with family and friends at Santangelo’s Restaurant on Old Liverpool Road. “We’re going to be looking at everything.”
Obsessively refreshing their smartphones for new information, they had followed the nail-biting race for an hour as Stott led Tassone by just six votes.
As of 11 p.m., with 100 percent of the vote counted, Stott received 48.6 percent or 2,120 votes. Tassone ended with 50.3 percent and 2,151 votes, according to unofficial results from the Onondaga County Board of Elections.
Absentee ballots could change the outcome of the election. Stott said he was told by Ed Ryan, Democratic elections board commissioner, that there are 123 absentee ballots in the race to be tallied.
District 4 is in the central region of Onondaga County, including Geddes, the western part of Salina, Liverpool and Onondaga Lake. The district has a slim Democratic majority, with 34 percent of voters compared to 32 percent for the Republican Party.
Stott represented District 4 in the legislature from 2008 to 2010. He lost the seat in the last election by 138 votes to Tassone, R-Liverpool.
In this replay race, the campaign took an ugly turn when Stott placed campaign signs accusing Tassone of a 48-percent tax hike in District 4. She responded to him with signs that read, “Not true.”
At the polls on Tuesday, voters painted the sign war as simply part of politics.
At Liverpool Village Hall polling place, Norm Andrzejewski, 70, of Liverpool voted for Stott on Tuesday. As for the nastiness, he said, it’s just part of he said-she said of politics. His wife placed a large sign supporting David Stott on their front yard, he said. “My wife likes him,” said Andrzejewski. “He’s a contemporary of our children. So we got a big sign.”
Also at the village hall, Fred Kelly, 70, of Liverpool cast his vote Tuesday morning for Tassone. He likes her despite the aggressive sign posting, he said. “Tassone did have a lot up, but I like her,” Kelly said. “I mean it’s part of politics.”
Throughout the race, Stott worked with much less campaign funds than his challenger. With little more than a week until Election Day, Stott had raised $10,119 compared to Tassone’s $25,873.
While he was out on Tuesday doing last-minute campaign, Stott said, a woman grabbed him by the arm and pulled him close. “She said, ‘I hope you win,’” recalled Stott, with tears in his eyes. “I don’t want to disappoint her.”
(Beckie Strum is a senior majoring in newspaper journalism and Middle Eastern studies.)
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