The votes are trending in the wrong direction for Sen. Stephen Saland, R-Poughkeepsie, to win re-election.
A count of absentee ballots in Putnam County last night yielded another 76 votes for Democrat Terry Gipson (left), giving him a 1,679-vote lead in the Hudson Valley race.
Dutchess County started its recount today, where they are about 10,000 absentee ballots.
Saland’s odds are long. He would need to win an overwhelming majority of the remaining absentees.
Republicans recognize that their best hope of retaining the majority is a win by Republican George Amedore against Democrat Cecilia Tkaczyk. That race changes hands seemingly by the hour as absentees are being counted.
2 Comments
Actually, Terry Gipson’s lead is 1684. Terry had picked up 5 votes when they counted emergency ballots during the re-canvassing in Putnam.
Counting so far in Dutchess has added to Gipson’s lead as well.
Remaning absentee ballots number closer to 7000. The extras are affidavits which are, far more often than not, not included in the final vote tally.
So, to put it another way, the votes are trending in the right direction for Terry Gipson to finally be certified as the new state senator.
Its truly sad. Di Carlo is just an ignorant man who galvanized those who were one issue voters. Mr. Gipson had no chance what-so-ever against Saland and was outclassed at every turn and in every debate. But for Di Carlo, this would have been another blowout. Gipson couldnt eclipse 44%. Saland’s potential and likely loss is a terrible loss for us all. Fortunately, the IDC recognizes that while they are Democrats, they are suburbanites too. I can only pray that Gipson recognizes the same in his brief stint our our next state senator. Although, if he is the minority, he wont likely accomplish much (let’s see what happens to his 20% state funded employment plan which I am sure he realizes just sounded good).