In various parts of New York State stretching from Brooklyn to Buffalo, voters in vacant legislative districts will elect new representatives to Albany today.
The marquee race is the special election to replace former State Senator Carl Kruger. Mr. Kruger, Democrat who represented southeastern Brooklyn, resigned when he pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges last December.
Advertisements supporting and opposing Democratic Lew Fidler and Republican David Storobin have been flooding out in a last ditch effort to affect the vote.
Most of the latest advertisements appear to mirror previously reported ones. However, some eagle-eyed readers pointed The Politicker to several new ads, including an email blast from the National Organization for Marriage supporting Mr. Storobin and an ad from the same organization calling out former Mayor Ed Koch for his support of Mr. Fidler while touting Mr. Storobin’s rabbincal support. Another ad from a group called “Torah Defense Values, INC.”, was sent out in an email blast with a similar message against Councilman David Greenfield.
Mr. Fidler also has an ad in the Orthodox Jewish newspaper Hamodia, showing off his own rabbinical support.
This race has already had its moments of craziness so far today. Mr. Greenfield tweeted a report that a van hit a Fidler volunteer handing out literature and sped away, something a Democratic source also confirmed to The Politicker, although details are obviously light about the incident so far.
Another closely watched race today will be the one replacing Thomas Kirwan in his old Assembly district in Dutchess, Ulster, and Orange Counties. Mr. Kirwan passed away at the end of 2011. He had lost the seat to Democrat Frank Skartados in 2008 only to come back and defeat Mr. Skartados by a tiny margin of 15 votes in 2010. Mr. Skartados is running again in the special election, as is Republican Dutchess County legislator John Forman.
Also in a Dutchess County, former Democratic State Senate candidate Didi Barett is running against Republican consultant Richard Wagner for an Assembly seat formerly held by Republican Marcus Molinaro. Mr. Molinaro is now Dutchess County Executive.
In a largely Democratic Erie County Assembly district, two Democrats are battling it out. Chris Fahey has the Democratic, Working Families Party, and Conservative Party lines while Mickey Kearns is running on the Republican and Independence lines.
Finally, in a heavily Democratic Westchester County district, Democrat Shelley Mayer is strongly favored to hold the seat previously held by now-Mayor Mike Spano.
The Politicker will be reporting the results from all of these races later this evening.
