Albany County Legislator Sam Fein has won the Democratic primary to be the next Albany Chief City Auditor.
Nearly 5,700 people cast their vote for Fein, who currently represents the 6th Legislative District. He pulled nearly 49% of the vote in the three-way race.
"I was even a little bit surprised by, you know, how strong of a victory it was. You know, I like to campaign. Everyone was telling me, 'Sam, you know, you got this,' but you know, I felt good that I like to campaign like we're behind, even if, even if I'm feeling good," said Fein.
According to Board of Elections data, former common councilor and Albany public school math teacher John Rosenzweig split the remainder of the vote with Mayor Kathy Sheehan's Chief of Staff David Galin, 26% (just over 3,000) to Galin’s 23% (just over 2,700). Sheehan spoke with WAMC Wednesday.
"David ran a really great race. I still believe he's the best person for the job. But I know that Sam Fein can do the job and I look forward to reaching out to him and helping him in any way with that transition," Sheehan said.
Fein will succeed Dorcey Applyrs, who won the primary contest for mayor after Sheehan decided not to seek a fourth four-year term.
"Having the Working Families already endorsement was huge," Fein said, "but I think it was about every organization, and even more so every individual, both the people who were involved in the campaign, people who knocked on doors, people who made calls, and just residents of the city who, you know, got behind me."
Fein grew up in Massachusetts and moved to the Capital Region in 2008. He worked as an analyst in the city's office of Audit and Control in 2017. During his nine-year tenure in the legislature, Fein says he has strived to improve the lives of county residents.
Albany County Comptroller Sue Rizzo had backed Rosenzweig but now offers to mentor Fein.
"I told him that I'll help him if he wins, and I will help him," Rizzo said. "I will mentor him. He did work under me when I was the city auditor, so I think we will work together to bring some things home. I think there's a lot of work to do."
Rizzo says there were several unfinished audits in progress when she left the post that merit completion.
The 34-year-old Fein will resign from the county legislature to become auditor. The legislature will then have 40 days to appoint a candidate to serve the rest of the term. The 2012 Union College grad promises to further extend the city auditor's mission to bring transparency, better technology and accountability to city hall.
"Ultimately, it's good that this was such a contested election, because it forced us to really get out there, to listen and to learn," Fein said. "I know potholes is one of the things people talk about a lot, street maintenance, sidewalk maintenance, you know, the basic core services like that, making sure city government is responsive to those needs, to those basic services when people make reports, but I also want to get to work on how can we solve some of these bigger picture challenges, housing affordability issues, homelessness."
Fein is anxious to roll up his sleeves and says he has already begun to map out a plan for when he takes office.
The victory is something of a breakthrough for Fein, who twice ran for the State Assembly’s 108th district seat held by John McDonald. He lost to McDonald in the 2020 Democratic primary and on the Working Families Party line in the general election. He cut short a 2022 bid for the seat after redistricting disqualified his candidacy.
