By Dan Murphy
In one of the hottest and closely watched State Senate races in New York State, State Senator Peter Harckham has defeated republican Rob Astorino, after a complete count of all of the absentee votes and votes by mail were counted.
Astorino had held an 8,000 vote lead, based on the election day results, in the 40th State Senate District, which includes parts of Westchester, Putnam and Dutchess counties.
But more than 35,000 voters in the district voted by mail or absentee ballot, and those votes came in overwhelmingly for Harckham.
“Unfortunately, I have some disappointing news to report. After a long and hard-fought campaign, it turns out that we’re going to end up a little short. Our 8,000+ vote lead on Election Night has dwindled down to just a few hundred votes and there are still several thousand ballots (mostly Democrat) left to count. We knew there was an unprecedented amount of absentee ballots (35K+) and that a large majority were from registered Democrats but we had expected to continue to do well with Democrat voters as we had with “in-person” voting and to continue to win independent voters by a large margin. It didn’t turn out that way. I called Senator Peter Harckham this morning to congratulate him on his re-election,” said Astorino.
“I am humbled and grateful for all of the tremendous support I have received during this campaign, and thank all of the voters in Senate District 40 for participating in this historic election. The confidence and trust that residents have placed in me once again will continue to guide my intentions. These are challenging times, though, and I look forward to being engaged in the hard work necessary to ensure a better future for all,” said Senator Harckham.
Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said, “I’m thrilled to welcome my good friend Senator Peter Harckham back to the State Senate. Senator Harckham has worked tirelessly to deliver results to the people of Westchester, Dutchess and Putnam Counties and earned this re-election. I look forward to continuing to partner with Senator Harckham as we tackle the many challenges ahead of us.”
In Westchester, Astorino’s loss signals a crippling blow to republicans across the county. Combined with an inability for republicans to win county wide offices, and the fact that democrats hold a 16-1 supermajority on the County Board of Legislators, the loss by the former two-term County Executive who was the party’s most articulate candidate for two decades, effectively signals the end of two-party government in Westchester.
Spending in this race by both candidates, and their respecitve State party committees was huge, with more than a combined $4 Million spent on TV ads and mailings.
Democrats used a simlar playbook against Astorino that County Executive George Latimer used in his sucessful race against Astorino in 2017, and focused on linking Astorino to President Trump with a flood of mailings and TV ads in the district.
Some republicans had hoped that in the 40th District, where Trump had won Putnam and Dutchess Counties in 2016, any attempts to tie Astorino to the President would not hurt.
But in the end, the thousands of absentee ballots sumbitted in the Hudson Valley, were similar to the results across the country. Democrats overwhelmingly chose to vote by absentee, and voted for Harckham in numbers as high as 80%.
“It has always been the history in U.S. elections that the easier it is for Americans to vote, the more likely it is that voters will elect democrats,” said elections scholar Richard Baldinger. “That is why typically, republicans have opposed efforts to make it easier to register and vote.”
In this State Senate race and across New York State, voters had to request an absentee ballot and then complete and submit the ballot to the Board of Elections. This eliminates most of the possibilites of fraud or improper ballots being counted, and there have been no allegations of wrongdoing made in this race.
While Sen. Harckham clearly rode wave of anti-Trump sentiment in Westchester, he also gets our congratulations on winning his re-election. During his two years in office, Harckham has been available to his constituents and has been a presence in the district, even during COVID.
