Republican Jake Ashby is leading Democrat Cindy Doran in the special election for New York’s 107th District Assembly seat.
In February, Governor Andrew Cuomo set an April 24 special election date for seats including the 107th District Assembly spot formerly held by RepublicanSteve McLaughlin, who became Rensselaer County Executive.
The 107th is evenly split between Democrats and Republicans. It includes parts of Rensselaer, Columbia and Washington Counties.
Two Rensselaer County legislators were nominated for the seat. Democrats called on second-term legislator Cindy Doran, who taught at Troy High School for three decades, while the GOP nod went to first-term legislatorJake Ashby, a former U.S. Army captain from Castleton.
As of midday on Wednesday, Ashby holds the lead.
He says he's proud of his campaign team “despite being outspent 3 to 1, possibly 4 to 1.” "We are confident that we are gonna be victorious in this endeavor, but we wanna be sure. So before we declare victory we wanna make sure that every vote in counted."
According to the New York State Board of Elections Election Night Reporting Page, Ashby pulled in almost 51 percent of the vote, 7,797 to Democrat Cindy Doran's 7,517, 49 percent of the vote.
"I know that we had a very energetic campaign in Columbia County and in Washington County, so we're anxious to see how that all plays out when the absentee ballots are counted," said Doran, who beat Ashby in the Washington and Columbia County portions of the district. Thirty one absentee ballots were sent out in Washington County. Officials at the Columbia County Board of Elections say they sent out 425 absentee ballots: 298 have come back so far.
The winner of the special election will serve the remainder of McLaughlin’s term, through the end of this year. Although political observers believe Ashby will emerge victorious, Doran isn't thinking about a re-match --- yet --- "It's certainly a consideration. I think I'm just gonna take a little time off and regroup and talk with my team. And we'll have a better answer in a few weeks."
According to the State Board of Elections, there were 889 returned absentee ballots so far and another 700 still outstanding that could come in and be counted by May 1.
