Editor’s note: Danny Liedka, R-East Syracuse, won a second term for the District 7 seat by 49 votes, after the count of absentee ballots by the Onondaga County Board of Elections.
By 73 votes, Republican Danny Liedka squeaked ahead in his re-election bid for the District 7 seat in the Onondaga County Legislature against Democratic challenger Lorene Dadey.
As of 10:45, with 100 percent of the vote counted, Liedka had 2,381 votes or 50.7 percent. Dadey had 2,308 votes or 49.2 percent.
“I worked my tail off. I’m super-excited with my effort,” Liedka, R-East Syracuse, said Tuesday night at the Onondaga County Republican Committee’s vote-watching gathering at the Palace Theatre.
At the GOP party, Liedka confidently joked about everything from encounters with the media, spending Election Day watching his kids and his first day as a sports broadcaster.
Liedka was running for his second term in District 7. In 2011, he defeated Dadey, also of East Syracuse, by about 200 votes.
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.
The voter enrollment of District 7 puts Liedka at a severe disadvantage. Democrats outnumber Republicans 40 to 26 percent. Of the district’s 16,382 voters, there are 6,616 registered Republicans and 4,192 Democrats. Another 25 percent – or 4,162 voters – are unaffiliated with a political party.
He praised his supporters for strengthening his campaign. As an incumbent, he said, “I walked in and didn’t have a learning curve, didn’t have to get up to speed.”
In fundraising, Liedka raised $5,103 between Jan. 1 and Nov. 3, 2013, spent $5,185 and had about $3,000 cash on hand. By comparison, Dadey raised $9,327, according to campaign finance reports filed with the New York state Board of Elections.
At the polls on Tuesday, some voters expressed mixed views on the race.
At the Jewish Community Center in DeWitt, voter Herb Roberts cited Dadey’s energy and enthusiasm as his reason for voting for her. “I’ve seen her in action. She has a certain amount of vitality,” Roberts said. “She would take a job, no matter what it is, and she would see it through.”
Rosemary Polimeni is an unaffiliated voter, who said she doesn’t always vote Republican. But she voted for Liedka for his integrity, she said. “I like some of his principles,” Polimeni said. “Give him another chance – see what he can do.”
At the GOP gathering in the Palace Theatre, county legislature chairman Ryan McMahon predicted a victory for Liedka and for Republicans to keep their 14-member majority in the 17-seat legislature. McMahon praised Liedka for his responsiveness and work ethic.
For his part, Liedka said he was happy to have the election over and be able to relax for the next few days. Said Liedka, “It’s always a relief to be done, win or lose.”
(Sean Farrell is a junior with dual majors in broadcast and digital journalism and political science.)
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