Ann Marie Buerkle conceded to Dan Maffei on Nov. 9. Democrat Maffei claimed victory in the race on Nov. 7. Buerkle, R-Onondaga Hill, trails Maffei by more than 14,000 votes.
In a race that doesn’t yet want to end, U.S. Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle trails Democratic challenger Dan Maffei in a battle for the 24th Congressional District.
“It’s just not going to be decided tonight,” Buerkle said to a room full of supporters at 11:20 p.m. in the Double Tree Hotel at Carrier Circle in East Syracuse, the site of the Republican’s party headquarters for the night. “But I know you’ll be here in spirit with us.”
As of 12:15 a.m. with 91 percent of the vote counted, Buerkle had 42 percent of the vote while Maffei had 50 percent, according to unofficial results from across the 24th Congressional District. Green Party candidate Ursula Rozum had about 8 percent of the vote.
In the 2012 election, the 24th Congressional District replaced the 25th because of constitutionally-mandated redistricting. The new district covers all of Cayuga, Onondaga and Wayne counties, and the western part of Oswego County, including the cities of Fulton and Oswego. Republicans have a slight advantage in voter enrollment, as 35 percent of the district’s 409,462 voters are Republicans compared to 34 percent who are Democrats. About 23 percent of voters are unaffiliated with a party.
There are also about 20,000 absentee ballots that have to be counted, Buerkle said. “We just don’t have enough results in yet,” she said, making the comparison to the 2010 race when a victor wasn’t decided until weeks after Election Day.
Nationally, control of the U.S. House of Representatives was never really at stake in Tuesday’s election. On Tuesday, all 435 U.S. House seats were up for election, with Republicans holding 240 seats while the Democrats held 190.
For the 24th Congressional District seat, the race was a rematch of the 2010 campaign, in which Buerkle edged out Maffei by 648 votes. The 2012 race has been marked with an intense ad exchange between the two campaigns. For example, a Maffei ad accused Buerkle of agreeing to redefine rape to exclude women who had been drugged or minors who had been victims of statutory rape. Maffei stuck by his criticism, while Buerkle said the ad was “wrong, desperate and pathetic.”
The race was also the most expensive one in Central New York history. Heading into Tuesday’s election, Buerkle had raised $1,794,459 and Maffei had raised $1,816,551 in their campaigns, according to financial disclosure reports to the Federal Election Commission filed on Oct. 17.
At the Jordan-Elbridge Community Center on Tuesday, Elaine Peters, of Jordan, said she cast her vote for Buerkle because of her fiscal policies, focus on less government and her straightforward mentality. “I like the job she’s done so far in office,” Peters said.
Charnel Munger, 30, a radiologic technologist at Heritage One Day Surgery in Syracuse, said she didn’t like any of the candidates running for the congressional seat. So she left that part of her ballot blank shortly after 5 p.m. at the Jordan-Elbridge Community Center. “I wasn’t really feeling either one of them,” Munger said.
At the GOP gathering at the Double Tree Hotel Tuesday night, two projectors were placed in two corners of the room so those gathered at the hotel could keep their eyes on the presidential race. Cheese, crackers, beer and drinks were plentiful. Red, white and blue balloons stretched toward the hotel room’s ceilings, while signs for Republican candidates were spread around the podium at the front of the room. The noise from the hundreds packed in the hotel made it so the FOX News anchors playing over the room’s speakers in the background were hardly audible.
At about 8:30 p.m., Onondaga County Republican Committee Chairman Tom Dadey asked those in attendance whether Buerkle was going to win tonight. The answer was an overwhelming, “Yes!”
At 10:20 p.m., Buerkle said she was unaware of the early polling results. When she was informed that she was trailing, Buerkle said, “The city of Syracuse typically goes Democratic and that’s something we’re hoping to neutralize.”
And there was still hope just before 11 p.m., when state Sen. John DeFrancisco, R-Syracuse, was announced as having won re-election for the 50th State Senate District. He told those gathered not to lose hope in the race, as the vote count at that point was from Onondaga County, which leans Democratic. “I think this thing is still extremely close,” DeFrancisco said. After adding that Buerkle was going to pull off her bid for a second straight term, DeFrancisco said, “It ain’t over ’till the fat person sings.”
(Jon Harris is a senior with dual majors in magazine journalism and political science.)
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