By 133 votes, Republican Danny Liedka is the leader in the race for District 7 Onondaga County Legislature on Tuesday.
Liedka expressed cautious excitement as he and friends gathered at Brad’s Extra Innings in East Syracuse. Until the absentee ballots are counted, he said, he will wait before celebrating.
“It was definitely not a cake walk,” said Liedka.
As of 11:18 p.m., Liedka, the mayor of East Syracuse, had a narrow lead over the Democratic party’s candidate, Lorene Dadey. With all 30 precincts reported, Liedka had 51 percent — or 2,381 votes; Dadey recieved 49 percent, or 2,248 votes. Absentee ballots will be counted within one week and include up to 600 voters. Dadey would need to get at least 62 percent of the absentee votes to defeat Liedka.
District 7 is in the central region of Onondaga County, including a small northeastern part of the city of Syracuse, most of the northern and western parts of DeWitt and all of East Syracuse.
Its voter registration is 39 percent Democrat, 27 percent Republican, and 24 percent not affiliated with a party.
In campaign money, Liedka outraised his opponent by more than three times. Since March, when Liedka announced his campaign, he has raised $15,374. By comparison, Dadey announced her campaign in July and had raised $4,521. As of Oct. 29, Liedka had $1,360 on hand; Dadey had $2,998.
At the polls Tuesday, some voters praised Liedka for his integrity, approachability and commitment to East Syracuse.
“The highest quality of a character is integrity,” said Kay Gallery, a 33-year-old stay-at-home mom who brought her four kids with her to the polls. She even let her oldest, Gordon, fill in the bubble for Liedka. “Danny definitely has that quality,” Gallery said. “He tries to do what is in the best interest of his constituents. He’s a family guy — and we identity with him.”
On the close race, Tom Dadey, the chairman of the Onondaga County Republican Committee, blamed the voter enrollment. “If more Democrats turn out and just vote down the party line,” said Dadey, “then it isn’t good for us.”
(Rebekah Jones is a senior with dual majors in geography and newspaper and online journalism.) This story has been updated to clarify Leidka’s description of the campaign as not a cakewalk and to include the last unofficial vote count at 11:18 p.m. with all 30 precincts reporting.
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