Unofficial results indicate Republicans will hold their narrow majority in the county legislature, the call for a constitutional convention fell on deaf ears by a near 6-1 margin and races in some towns were extremely tight.
In the race for state Supreme Court judge, a strong showing in Ulster catapulted Democrat Julian Schreibman to a strong lead over Capital District Republican Peter Crummey. Coming out of Ulster with an almost 5,000-vote plurality, Schreibman led Crummey by about 10,000 votes in the seven-county Third District. About 80 percent of ballots had been counted at deadline.
In a closely-watched race for legislature, Kingston Democrat Jennifer Schwartz Berky lost her seat to Republican Brian Woltman by an unofficial 219 votes. Woltman said a police tape showing Berky breaking down after a traffic stop in May and released only two weeks before the election was not a factor. Berky’s lawyers had insisted the tape, which went viral, would jeopardize her chances for re-election.
In another heated contest, the three-way race for legislator in Olive-Shandaken went to John Parete, with 1,001 votes to Democrat Kathy’s Nolan’s 959. Republican Cliff Faintych tallied 647.
Democrat Lynn Archer appears to regained her seat from Republican Ronald Lapp by about 50 votes.
In the closest town race in the county, Republican John Perry appears to have defeated Democrat Tracey Kellogg for Hurley supervisor by two votes.
In the race for Marbletown supervisor, Richard Parete, running on both major party tickets, defeated incumbent Mike Warren 1,158 to 976.
Running unopposed, Democratic Democrat Elliott Auerbach tallied 32,543 votes. Republican county clerk Nina Postupack had 30,813 with only eight districts unreported.