(Lauren Malinowski)
Republican candidate John Sharon lost the race for 119th state Assembly District seat to Democrat Sam Roberts on Tuesday.
After hours spent at the Republican Party headquarters at the Doubletree Hotel in East Syracuse, Sharon approached the podium with the American flag behind him, and said through disappointment, “Good news for me, I get to go to bed now.”
As of 11:18 p.m. with 100 percent of the vote counted, the official results showed Roberts with 18,626 votes or 54 percent, and Sharon with 11,010 votes or 32 percent. Also on the ballot were Christina Fadden Fitch, the Conservative Party candidate, from Liverpool, who got 3,454 or 10 percent; and Michael Donnelly, an attorney from DeWitt, as the Green Party candidate, with 1,160 votes or 3.4 percent.
All candidates were vying to succeed Assemblywoman Joan Christensen, D-Syracuse, who has held this District’s seat 1990. Christensen is retiring at the end of her term this month.
The 119th state Assembly District includes the towns of Onondaga, Salina, DeWitt, parts of Syracuse and the Onondaga Reservation.
Voter enrollment in the 119th District heavily favored Roberts, with Democrats having 35,659 compared to 21,171 for the GOP; 1,043 for the Conservative Party; 263 for the Green Party; 442 for the Working Families Party and 19, 360 who are unaffiliated with a party.
Sharon, a political novice, is a lawyer in the Onondaga County Attorney’s Office.
At the polls on Tuesday, voters expressed both opposition to and support for Sharon and his campaign.
At the Mulroy Civic Center polling place, Jim Cotter of Syracuse, an insurance company employee, supported Roberts, the Democrat. “He’s seems like a regular guy,” Cotter said outside, “and I like that.” In voting for Roberts, Cotter added, he particularly supported his position on bringing more money and jobs to the area.
At the Republican party’s vote-watching party Tuesday night, John Carello of DeWitt, vice president of a business development company, said he cast his vote for Sharon mainly because of his reputation as a political newcomer. “We need less career politicians,” Carello said.
For his part, Sharon expressed pride in his campaign and thanked his supporters. “I ran the race I wanted to, Sharon said. “I wanted to run an economically conservative campaign, and I think I accomplished that.”
(Lauren Malinowski is a graduate student in broadcast and digital journalism.)
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