| It would appear Sen. Bill Stachowski's win tonight was the difference in keeping the New York State Senate. Stachowski has a 6,500 vote lead with all but 24 precincts reporting. The race is his.
Unfortunately, Democrats didn't win elsewhere. Joe Mesi fell short tonight against Mike Ranzenhofer in SD-61. Rick Dollinger lost his bid in SD-56 to knock off Joe Robach, losing by four percentage points (52-48) to the man who replaced him in 2002. Dave Nachbar lost 61-39 to Jim Alesi in SD-55 in a tough race. And Paloma Capanna, the grassroots extraordinaire, lost to Sen. Michael Nozzolio.
We also saw Kathy Konst lose to Sen. Dale Volker, although her loss should inject some hope into that seat. Volker did not win the primary in dominating fashion and this win was only by 12 points. Konst showed us something in this race for the 59th District seat.
We proved a lot here in Western New York this year and we have a lot more to prove in 2010. We showed tonight that contrary to popular belief, we do have some pretty good candidates up here. We showed that we can, even with enrollment disadvantages, compete with the Republicans and win one here or there.
In 2010, I will make a couple of predictions:
(1) Joe Robach isn't safe. It's difficult to see Rick Dollinger not win because Dollinger would have been a true reformer in the Senate. But once the money stream is cut from Robach's hands, he will be powerless. Hopefully the Democratic Senate can prove that it takes more than just member items to run this state.
(2) Start lining up for Dale Volker. I know the people in SD-59 want that seat and I will make something clear: I want that seat too. We are going to make it happen.
We may not have been successful tonight, but we showed we are competitors. We aren't pushovers and this is no longer Republican country. We will remain competitive and fight for every seat and hopefully, pick up a few along the way. |
