November 7, 2012

Owens beats Doheny; county goes to Obama

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I t appears that for the second time in two years Bill Owens has defeated Matt Doheny in their race to represent the 21^st Congressional district.

Doheny, a Republican, called his Democratic opponent shortly after midnight on Wednesday morning to concede the race.

According to WNYT of Albany, Owens held a lead of more than 3,000 votes with 94 percent of the ballots counted early Wednesday morning. He had received approximately 50 percent of the vote while Doheny garnered 48 percent, bucking the trend seen locally.

In Washington County, Owens received only 8,753 votes compared to 10,124 for Doheny.

In 2010, Owens defeated Doheny in a very close race for the 23^rd Congressional district.

In other races, Republican Dan Stec easily defeated Democrat Dennis Tarantino in their race for the newly formed 114^th New York State assembly district.

As of Wednesday morning, Stec held an 8 percent lead over his opponent, which reflected how the people of Washington County voted.

Until this year, Washington County was a single district, the 113^th. But following redistricting the county was divided into two district.

Stec will represent all of Essex and Warren Counties and the northern portion of Washington County.

In Putnam, Dennis Kane received 181 votes in an unopposed campaign for town Justice and in Hebron Ed Harrington received 446 votes in an unopposed campaign for town council.

On the national level, Democratic incumbent Kirsten Gillibrand defeated Republican Wendy Long for New York State senator. In Washington County, Gillibrand received more than 67 percent of the vote.

And in the national election President Barack Obama was reelected to a second term in office. Obama narrowly edged his opponent Mitt Romney by 376 votes in Washington County.

Leslie Allen, Republican commissioner for the county board of election said Wednesday morning the county-wide vote totals do not include two of the 52 districts in the county and 250 absentee ballots that were sent out but have not been counted.