There were few surprises Tuesday night as Assemblywoman Claudia Tenney, R-New Hartford, and Assemblymen Bill Magee, D-Nelson, and Pete Lopez, R-Schoharie, all won their respective races handily.
Magee, a 22-year veteran of the Assembly and chairman of its Agriculture Committee, campaigned on his service to the district.
“I’m glad that folks had faith in me for another term,” he said.
Magee attributed his victory to “what I’ve been able to do for agriculture – that’s important to the district – and tourism and also constituent services.”
Magee said his immediate plans for the upcoming term include allocating some capital funds for a streetlight and sidewalk project in Cooperstown and a couple of other projects in Oneonta.
His Republican challenger, Levi Spires, an Internet marketing entrepreneur from Cazenovia, campaigned on tax cuts.
“He ran a good campaign,” Magee said. “He didn’t go negative.”
Lopez said his priorities in the next term would be the same as they have been: “Helping to obtain and keep jobs in the region (and) helping government live within its means.”
Lopez, who said he sees himself as a pragmatist, said being in the minority party in the Assembly “doesn’t limit me.”
Jimmy Miller, a Round Top native and former Albany Police Department spokesman, was Lopez’s opponent.
Tenney, a lawyer, business owner and radio host, won by about a 2-to-1 margin over Dan Carter, a machinist from Little Falls who also is Herkimer County Democratic chairman.
She said Tuesday night that she plans to “see what we can do about Medicaid.”
She also talked out fixing education funding, “so we’re finally helping the truly needy districts, which we’re not” doing.
She is completing her first term representing 115th District in the Assembly and was moved into the serpentine 101st in a redistricting that followed the 2010 census. Her new district extend more than 120 miles, north to south, but only 5 miles, east to west, in some places and includes parts of seven counties: Oneida, Herkimer, Otsego, Delaware, Sullivan, Ulster and Orange.
In other races of local note, Assemblyman Clifford Crouch, R-Guilford, ran unopposed in the 122nd Assembly District, which covers western Delaware County, the southwestern corner of Otsego County and southern Chenango County. Assemblyman Gary Finch, R-Springport, also ran unopposed in the 126th District, which includes northern Chenango County.
