Nearly two weeks after Election Day, the race for the NY-121 State Assembly seat has concluded, with challenger John Salka conceding that incumbent Assemblyman Bill Magee won the election.
While Magee, D-Nelson, ended election night ahead in the unofficial results, Salka, R-Brookfield, refused to concede because the vote difference was less than the number of absentee ballots still to be counted, according to his campaign information. But with the majority of absentee ballots counted by Friday, Nov. 14, Salka decided the votes were just not there for a victory.
“The absentee ballots have been counted for two out of the three counties in the district and there were no great surprises. The margin basically stayed the same with Mr. Magee winning the election,” Salka posted on his campaign Facebook page on Nov 14. “I am so honored by all the thousands of people that voted for me regardless of how out spent we were by someone that has been in office for so long. That being said, I wish Mr. Magee the best and he has done a good job for a long time for many.”
Magee’s victory gives him a 13th term to the state assembly, where he has served since 1990. He campaigned on his ability to bring state funding and state projects to his district and his track record of listening to his constituents and acting in their best interests.
“I was pleased with the outcome we got. I recognize that people do feel that I’ve done something for them in the past years, and hopefully we can do some more in the future,” Magee said last week upon hearing of Salka’s online concession.
Magee said Salka had called him the day before but he missed the call, and Salka said he would call back over the weekend.
Salka, the current supervisor of the town of Brookfield, ran as an anti-Albany candidate, saying he would fight against the entrenched machine politics and New York City-based politicians and shake things up in the state legislature.
The two men held three debates during the campaign — one in each of the three counties that make up the 121st assembly district: Madison, Oneida and Otsego.
On election night, unofficial results give Magee 16,124, or 50.24 percent, of the vote, and give Salka 14,730, or 45.89 percent, of the vote. There were also 1,171 blank ballots and 47 write-in votes.
The state board of election results broken down by counties within the 121st assembly district were:
✓Madison County — Magee 8,775, Salka 8,574.
✓Part of Oneida County — Magee 1,806, Salka 2,053.
✓Part of Otsego County — Magee 5,543, Salka 4,103.
By Friday, Nov. 14, two of the three counties in the assembly district had counted and made public their updated results to include absentee ballots. Otsego County board of elections unofficial results have the vote totals at Magee with 5,908 and Salka with 4,343; while Madison County board of election unofficial results now have Magee at 9,273 votes and Salka at 8,985 votes. Oneida County board of elections had no results to offer last week.
Counties can receive and count absentee ballots up to and including Monday, Nov. 17, after which they will do a final count and certify their local results, said Tom Connelly, public information officer with the state board of elections. The state board will certify the statewide results after the counties have certified their own, which will occur probably at the next meeting of the state election commissioners on Dec. 15, he said.
With the election over, Magee said he will continue to work in the assembly on issues important to the citizens of his district, particularly in the area of agriculture.
Salka said he will now regroup, focus on his family and his other jobs continue to spread his message “of government by the people and for the people. Last week he also said that he will run for reelection as Brookfield town supervisor in November 2015, and he also has the “full intention” of running for the state assembly again in the future.
Jason Emerson is editor of the Cazenovia Republican. He can be reached at [email protected].
