Democrat Kathleen Joy has lost the race for the 50th state Senate District seat against the 18-year incumbent, Sen. John DeFrancisco, R-Syracuse.
“I don’t want to hear would’a, could’a, should’a- it’s what are we going to do next,” Joy told dejected supporters as the Democrats watched the election results at the Holiday Inn in Liverpool Tuesday night.
As of 11:30 p.m, with 100 percent of the vote counted, the unofficial tally count showed Joy with 30,596 numbers of votes compared to 56,253 for DeFrancisco.
The 50TH state Senate District includes most of Onondaga County, and parts of Syracuse.
Control of the state Senate was at stake in this election. Out of the 62 state Senate seats, Democrats had 32 and Republicans had 29. The 38th state Senate District seat was vacant.
In her campaign to unseat DeFrancisco, Joy highlighted her experience in business, as a real estate attorney and as majority leader of Syracuse’s Common Council. In 2000, she started a small business in property management, but gave that up in 2006 to take a full-time job as a real estate attorney. Joy is best known for her position with the Syracuse Common Council. She began her political career in 2005, when she ran for the Common Council. She was re-elected in 2007 and is now the Council’s majority leader.
The state’s 50th Senate District voter enrollment favored DeFrancisco slightly. With 194,136 voters enrolled, Republicans have a majority in the district. As of April 2010 The New York State Board of Elections reports 65,952 voters enrolled as Republicans; 65,445 enrolled as Democrats; and 48,879 registered as unaffiliated with a party.
At the polls on Tuesday, voters hinted at Joy’s loss Tuesday night. Some voters said they didn’t really know who Joy was. Julie Hawkins, a registered Democrat said “I don’t know much about her at all.”
For her part, Joy greeted the crowd and her defeat with composure. In an interview after her concession speech, Joy teared-up when speaking about her supporters. “It is a very heartfelt thank you. It’s very humbling to have people say we support you. That’s what it’s all about,” said Joy.
(Mojgan Sherkat is a graduate student in broadcast and digital journalism.)
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