Archive: News

While the conventional wisdom is that the Town of Lansing is a rural conservative bastion, the news Tuesday was that Lansing (Town and Village) voted overwhelmingly for Democrats.  Lansing voters favored Democrats in every single contest.  Although Republican candidate Mike Nozollio won his ninth term as New York State Senator district-wide, even he did not fare well in Lansing.

A remarkable 5021 Lansing voters came to the polls.  When you compare that to the City of Ithaca's (pop 29,974) 7927 you realize that Lansing (pop 11,011) voters are impressively engaged.  Voter turnout was 74% in the Town and Village of Lansing, with the highest turnout of 76.7% in the 5th voting district, which includes the Reach Run, East Lake, and Waterwagon Road neighborhoods.  The second highest turnout was in North Lansing, perhaps a testament to the North Lansing Auxiliary's famous Election Day Dinner and Supper.  The lowest turnout of 67.2% came from district 8, a thin slice of North Lansing that includes West Groton , Luce , Bacon, and Goodman Roads.

Despite a 52% - 46% win nationally, Barak Obama scored 63.04% of Lansing votes.  Obama won 3,165 Lansing votes to McCain's 1,745.  83 voted for fringe candidates, including 24 for Libertarian Bob Barr, and 38 for Populist Ralph Nader.  You might think that Obama would do better in the south of Lansing, but he got more votes than McCain in all eight districts within the Town and Village. 

The tightest race was between U.S.Congressman Michael Arcuri (D) and challenger Richard Hanna (R).  The race teetered back and forth as election results trickled in with each candidate slightly ahead one moment, and slightly behind the next.  In the end Arcuri won with 51% of the vote across the 24th US Congressional District.  (Note: Arcuri has a 6,436 lead, but that may change when 9,000 absentee ballots are counted.  The likelihood is that Arcuri will win.)

How America and New York Voted (Left to right)Voters across the nation preferred Barak Obama (D) for President.   Michael Arcuri (D) won a second term as U.S. Congressman by a narrow margin.  Michael Nozzolio (R) trounced opponent Paloma Capanna (D) district-wide.  Barbara Lifton (D) ran unopposed for her New York State Assembly seat. How Lansing Voted Lansing was in tune with the nation and the state in preferring Obama, Arcuri, and Lifton.  But Paloma Capanna (third from right) scored a win in Lansing with 51.93% of votes cast, versus Mike Nozzolio's 48.07.

But in Lansing it was a different story when Arcuri scored a more commanding local lead.  63.45% (2828) of Lansing voters preferred Arcuri to Hanna's 36.55% (1629).   Both candidates come from Utica, in the northern part of the district.   Lansing is the southern-most community in the district.  Arcuri may have overcome the stigma of being a Democrat in a traditionally Republican area by visiting Lansing frequently and engaging with people here.  In fact he was in Lansing the night before Election Day.  Hanna largely phoned in his campaign as far as Lansing was concerned.  The numbers show that paid off here for Arcuri.

The State Senate race was a big surprise in Lansing.  Incumbent Senator Michael Nozzolio, who is popular in Lansing, won state-wide with 71% of the vote (80,944) to challenger Paloma Capanna's 29% (32,342).  Capanna was a long-shot candidate running against a popular Senator.
 
But in Lansing Capanna won with 2256 votes to Nozzolio's 2088.  Capanna ran a grass roots campaign that began in September, while Nozzolio started campaigning much later, closer to election time.  A Cornell graduate, he visits frequently and has been engaged and generous during his eight terms in office.  But Capanna made sure to visit often, and with the support of the Tompkins County and Lansing Democratic Committees she broke the red barrier here.


Part of the story is how many of the 5021 Lansing voters did not vote for a particular office.  Only 28 declined to vote for President.  677 did not vote for State Senator.  564 didn't vote for U.S. Congressman. 

1940 Lansing voters did not vote for Barbara Lifton (D), even though she ran unopposed.  But even with that large number of voters refusing to pull the lever for Lifton, 3081 Lansing voters did, making it a Democratic Party sweep across the board in Lansing.

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Election results based on unofficial results gathered from the Tompkins County Board of Elections and initial reported state results.

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