Archive: News

Lansingites turned out Tuesday to vote for candidates in several highly contested political races, including local elections for Lansing Town Justice, Tompkins County Sheriff, and the 23rd US Congressional district seat.  Local turnout averaged 63.11% county-wide.  In Lansing the turnout averaged 64.4% with the highest turnout in District 1 (west-central Lansing) at 65.58% and the lowest in District 4 (northwest Lansing) at a still respectable 61.02%.  Unofficial election results -- the results of the Tuesday vote before write-ins and other qualifying votes are counted -- made it unlikely that Tuesday winners would be displaced when the final votes are tallied.

Maura Kennedy-Smith (D) defeated Dick Costello (R) for Lansing Town Justice with 73% of the votes, 3,248 to 1,342 with all seven districts reporting. Kennedy-Smith outpaced Costello in all seven districts.  Costello made his best showing in District 3 with 230 votes, but Kennedy-Smith received 503 in the same district.

In the Tompkins County Sheriff race Derek Osbourne (D) received 67.65% of the votes for Sheriff with all 63 districts reporting. Osbourne has 21,396 votes, Ken Lansing has 8,553, and Josh Brokaw received 1,639 votes.  Even with absentee ballots and other qualifying ballots, the margins are not close enough to impact the final result.  In Lansing Osbourne took the lead in all seven districts, with Ken Lansing coming close to - but not quite - a tie in the two North Lansing districts 2 and 8.  Brokaw came in a distant third, receiving the most Lansing votes -- 15 -- in District 5.

County Clerk Maureen Reynolds, running unopposed, ran on both the Democratic and Republican tickets, gathering 24,163 votes as a Democrat and 7,699 on the Republican line.

With all 566 districts reporting on the 23rd Congressional District race, Tom Reed won another term with 122,881 votes to Tracy Mitrano's 100,495.  She did remarkably well in the huge and largely conservative district that stretches over eleven counties including Tompkins, Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Chemung, Schuyler, Seneca, Steuben, and Yates Counties plus portions of Ontario, and Tioga counties, but in the end Reed garnered 53.78% of the vote to Mitrano's 43.99%. 

As expected, Mitrano was the clear favorite in Tompkins County, leading Reed 25,861 to 8,361.  Lansing voters preferred Mitrano by 3,187 to 1,416 with Mitrano taking 67.4% of Lansing votes.

With all 230 districts reporting Pam Helming (R) retained her NYS Senate seat with 63,566 votes to Kenan S. Baldridge's (D) 38,369.  Lansing is the only Tompkins County town in the 54th district.  Lansing voters preferred Baldridge 2,843 to 1,664.

Lansing Voting Districts

Barbra Lifton (D), running unopposed, retained the NYS Assembly seat she has held since 2002 with 73.84% of the votes.  25.33% of those who voted Tuesday left the State Assembly line blank, totaling 11,133 who chose not to vote. There were 368 write-ins.

In other races Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) won by a landslide state-wide, but was not quite as popular in Lansing, where he received 48.62% of the vote.  His closest opponent Marc Molinaro (R) received 27.48% of the Lansing vote.  Thomas P. Dinapoli also retained his position as NYS Comptroller with a hefty lead over his opponents state-wide and in Lansing.  Letitia A. James won NYS Attorney General with 59.65% of the state-wide vote.  In Lansing she won with approximately 2/3 of the votes.  Kirsten Gillibrand (D) won state-wide with 64.45% of the votes, and in Lansing as well with a hefty lead over her closest challenger, Chele Chiavacci Farley (R).

Joe McBride (R) defeated Elizabeth A. Burns (D) for NYS District 6 Supreme Court Justice in a close race state-wide with McBride taking 47.82% of the vote to Burns's 45.82%. Lansing voters favored Burns, but with varying degrees of enthusiasm, depending on the district.

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