The challengers for Onondaga County sheriff came up short on Tuesday.
Democrat Joe Price and Toby Shelley, running on the Working Families Party line, finished far behind Republican incumbent Kevin Walsh.
From the Ivory Room at Barbagallo’s restaurant in East Syracuse, Shelley watched the results come with his campaign staff . “We ran a clean campaign, we worked hard, and that’s why the results are so disappointing” said Shelley.
Joe Price did not respond to calls for an interview for this story.
Price and Shelley’s defeat at the polls ensures the fifth consecutive term of Republican Kevin Walsh.
As of 10:58 p.m., with nearly 100 percent of the vote counted, unofficial results had Price with 33,025; Shelley with 12,356; and Walsh with 82,544, according to the Onondaga County Board of Elections.
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Shelley had been the first choice of the Onondaga Democratic Committee, but Price won the party nomination in this year’s Sept. 14 Democratic Primary. Shortly after the primary, Price came under fire when The Post-Standard linked him to a series of offensive posts made on Syracuse.com. In the face of that controversy, the County Democratic Party announced it would not support his campaign with money or resources.
Price’s younger brother and campaign manager, Justin Price, downplayed the loss of support, saying the Democrats weren’t doing much for the campaign in the first place. “They have no money, so there really is no money that they’re giving or refusing to give,” Price said in an earlier interview with Democracywise. “Nothing gained, nothing lost.”
Earlier at the polls on Tuesday some voters said they didn’t know enough about Price or Shelley to give one of them their vote.
“I don’t know that much about the sheriff’s race. You don’t hear that much,” said Courtney Sullivan at the polling station at Fayetteville-Manlius Senior High School. “I don’t know that much about either of the candidates because you never really heard anything about it
At the Fayetteville Free Library, voter Maudie Ritchie said she was satisfied with the job Kevin Walsh is doing. “I would not have voted against him to find out what kind of job the other would do,” said Ritchie.
As for what’s next, Price had earlier expressed uncertainty about his future in politics. But, he had said in an earlier Democracywise interview, he’ll be at his shift as a county sheriff’s deputy at 5:30 a.m. on Wednesday.
Some members of Shelley’s staff suggest he’ll run for sheriff again. “I certainly believe he will run again, because quite frankly if he doesn’t run again that would be a tragedy to the folks of Onondaga County because he is the best candidate for the job,” said Tom Newton, Shelley’s campaign coordinator .
Shelley was non-committal. “I’ll have to give it some serious thought,” Shelley said.
(Michael Contino is a senior broadcast journalism and international relations major.)
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