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Hochul declared winner, Corwn concedes, in NY-26 special election

By Howard B. Owens

Even before the Genesee County vote has been counted, the Buffalo News, along with other media outlets, have declared the race for Kathy Hochul.

According to the Buffalo paper's numbers, with 87 percent of the precincts reporting, Hochul has 48 percent of the vote to Corwin's 42 percent. Jack Davis picked up 9 percent and Ian Murphy 1 percent.

Corwin conceded the race shortly after 10 p.m.

It's unclear what will become of the court order Corwin obtained earlier today barring certification of the election results before a court appearance on Thursday.

RICHARD L. HALE

Is it really over.....please tell me its over....The way the ads and the mud slinging were going, to be truthful, I was looking forward to the end of the world last Saturday!!!

May 25, 2011, 12:23am Permalink
C. M. Barons

Kathy Hochul underscores Louise Slaughter's historic firsts: first female AND Democrat to represent WNY in Congress.

Looking back almost 40 years: Barber Conable represented the 35th District from 1973 - 80 when the District was re-drawn as the 30th. He represented the 30th District until 1985 when the World Bank beckoned. Fred Eckert held the seat for a single term. Then Louise was elected. The District was redrawn in 1993, and Genesee became part of the 27th District represented by Jack Quinn.

In 2003 redistricting resulted in Genesee County becoming part of the 26th represented by three, successive Erie GOP hacks: Paxon, Reynolds and Lee.

It feels like a curse has been lifted...

May 25, 2011, 12:15pm Permalink
Steve Ferrando

Well we can all breathe in a breath of fresh air this morning as the odor of all the negativity and special interest $$$ has been cleared away. The Corwin campaign was one of the most mean spirited in a long time. She thought she had us voters fooled but we saw thru her and gave her what she had coming to her.(Well the majority of us at least, seems to be that she was a big winner here in good "olde" Genesee County) And then for a finale we had Law enforcement rushing into the Polling places to take the ballots and lock them up because I guess she was afraid that we might have done something to undermine her endeavors..... Oh yeah!!

May 25, 2011, 7:47am Permalink
Lisa Falkowski

Congratulations, Kathy! Please prove to me that I supported the right candidate. You can only do so much, I realize. Please just show you are supporting this area. Good luck to you!

May 25, 2011, 8:18am Permalink
Howard B. Owens

Bud, the US Constitution does not require a rep to live in the district. But she says she will move. But that seems rather unnecessary since lines will be redrawn.

May 25, 2011, 8:27am Permalink
Gabor Deutsch

The winner was announced before Genesee County votes will even be counted. Hmmm, What exactly do our votes count for again ? I am not against voting but am I the only one who feels excluded ?

May 25, 2011, 8:51am Permalink
Daniel Jones

Howard - She lives in Democratic Congressman Brian Higgins' district, who is extremely popular (winning over 60 percent of the vote last year in a district where Carl Paladino won huge numbers). So I think that she is unlikely to stay in Hamburg and try to challenge Higgins. As to where she would move to, I'm not sure, but I don't think that she would stay where she is.

May 25, 2011, 8:55am Permalink
Howard B. Owens

Daniel, we don't know where Higgins' lines will be in 2012, or Slaughter's. We don't know if Genesee County will be wrapped into a district with Higgins or Slaughter or part of some district that stretches down into the Southern Tier.

There's probably room for only two Democrats to represent WNY. It's likely that Hochul will be forced into a race that is even redder than the 26th now.

The lines will be redrawn to protect Higgins and Slaughter, I think, so I predict the new district boundaries GC will be part of will not include Erie or Monroe counties, with those going to Higgins' and Slaughter's districts respectively. So if Kathy moves into any other part of Erie County, she will be in a residence that won't be part of the district she will seek re-election in.

We could become part of a district that would have Tom Reed and Kathy Hochul running against each other in 2012.

There's also a possibility GC gets split between Higgins' and Slaughter's districts (that's the worst-case scenario (not to be represented by Higgins and Slaughter, but to have the county broken up between two congressional seats, as was done to Orleans County last time)).

May 25, 2011, 9:07am Permalink
Howard B. Owens

Gabor, if the race had been much closer, it could have come down to Genesee County. In fact, since the GC tally STILL isn't 100 percent available, if the race had been really tight, we still wouldn't know.

Hey, I grew up in California where a typical president race was decided hours before our polls closed.

May 25, 2011, 9:10am Permalink
Daniel Jones

Howard - I think that if NY-26 gets split, certain parts of the district will be in a red district....but....they are more likely to try to combine two Democratic districts. Analytically speaking, putting Slaughter and Hochul in the same district makes sense. I imagine that Hochul will probably move to the north-towns of Erie County, it would make sense for her to continue to live there since she has done so her whole life.

I am hopefully that an independent redistricting bill passes before the legislative session ends in Albany. Then we hopefully will not see anymore ear muff districts

May 25, 2011, 9:15am Permalink
Howard B. Owens

I'm not holding my breath. The Repubs and Dems both love their gerrymandering.

If it were up to me, districts would have to follow some sort of contiguous logic. Like, you couldn't split a county. Some margin of mathmatical imbalance would be allowed so that counties wouldn't have to be split.

Within counties, where there are more than representative, cities, towns and villages couldn't be split, etc.

This would lead naturally to more balanced districts, more competitive races, and a more representative democracy.

But if I were advising Kathy, I'd say, just stay put. You're going to be busy enough over the next 18 months and who knows what the future holds.

May 25, 2011, 9:24am Permalink
Daniel Jones

Howard - Counties like Erie County encompass over a million people. I would say that a rule that states that you cannot split a County with a population under a certain number, lets say for arguments sake, one hundred thousand would be reasonable. Districts get split due to average, it's important that each district has roughly the same amount of people in it.

May 25, 2011, 9:37am Permalink
Daniel Jones

I would advise Kathy to move into her district. From a political and moral standpoint, it's important for her to live in the place that she represents when she isn't in Washington.

May 25, 2011, 9:39am Permalink
Howard B. Owens

Dan, you seemed to have missed where I wrote, "Within counties, where there are more than representative, cities, towns and villages couldn't be split, etc."

May 25, 2011, 9:51am Permalink
Daniel Jones

Howard - You're right, I did miss that. Actually towns cannot be split, only cities can. With a city as large as Buffalo, for example, a split would not be unreasonable due to it's size and diversity within it's areas (i.e. South Buffalo, predominantly Irish, has little in common with the predominantly African American east side culturally). A city like Batavia though, should not be split.

May 25, 2011, 11:22am Permalink
Dave Olsen

KNOWN FOR Advocating the removal of highway tolls on the New York State Thruway near Buffalo; vocally opposing a plan by former Gov. Eliot Spitzer to grant driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants; boycotting her hometown’s Exxon Mobil stations in 2006 to protest high gas prices.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/25/us/politics/25hochulbox.html

Give me a break, Hell I advocated for the removal of the I-190 thruway tolls, I vocally opposed the Spitzer plan to give illegal aliens driver licenses, and I boycott ExxonMobil still. She's gonna have to do better than that.

May 25, 2011, 7:04pm Permalink
bud prevost

Welocme to the juniorest, lame duck Congressperson in the current House. Does she have to be the first there in the morning to make coffee?

May 25, 2011, 7:34pm Permalink

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