Editor’s note: Lorene Dadey lost the District 7 seat by 49 votes, after the count of absentee ballots by the Onondaga County Board of Elections.
In a nail-biter, Democratic challenger Lorene Dadey trailed incumbent Danny Liedka, R-East Syracuse, by 73 votes in the race for Onondaga County Legislature’s District 7 seat late Tuesday night.
Around 250 absentee ballots remained to be counted, leaving the race’s winner still in doubt by 11 p.m. In the unofficial tally from the Onondaga County Board of Election’s website, with 100 percent of the vote counted, Dadey had 49 percent — or 2,308 votes — to Liedka’s 51 percent — or 2,381 votes.
“I feel calm,” Dadey said as she left the Democratic Party’s vote-watching gathering at Pensebene’s Casa Grande Restaurant on State Fair Boulevard carrying a bouquet of flowers.
In the Nov. 5 election, the race was a repeat of 2011, when Dadey lost to Liedka by 166 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. Of the district’s 16,412 registered voters, 40 percent are Democrats, 26 percent are Republicans and 25 percent are unaffiliated with a political party.
In fundraising, Dadey had raised $9,327 between April and October. She spent $7,186. As of Nov. 5, she had $2,141 on hand.
At the polls on Tuesday, some voters expressed confidence in Dadey’s ability to serve District 7.
At the Jewish Community Center in DeWitt, voter Cherelle Wynn, 44, said she supports Dadey’s stance on strengthening public safety. “On our street, there’s a lot of elderly people who like to sit in their yards,” said Wynn. “And we have to look out for those people.”
Also at the Jewish Community Center, voter Earl Darisaw, 58, voted for Dadey as a loyal Democrat. He’s not familiar with her stance on the issues, said Darisaw. “But when in doubt, vote Democrat,” he said.
At the Democratic Party’s gathering on Tuesday night, Dadey arrived around 11 p.m., when almost all of the votes had been counted. As victorious candidates left the party, Dadey stuck around watching the television pensively, until all the votes were tallied. She was somewhat relieved to see that there were around 250 absentee ballots that haven’t been counted, she said.
She was holding out hope of the win when the absentee ballots are counted and the final tally is issued by the board of elections. “It is what it is,” said Dadey. “And we have to get through it.”
(Valerie Crowder is a junior with dual majors in newspaper journalism and political science.)
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