VESTAL, NY (WSKG) - On New Year's Day, Michael Korchak was sworn in as district attorney. Korchak ran as a third-party candidate on the Libertarian line after narrowly losing to Paul Battisti in last year's Republican primary.
Korchak prevailed in November but only after Battisti challenged the results in court.
In remarks after officially taking office, Korchak did not back away from criticizing his opponent. He thanked the staff in the D.A.'s office and said the nature of the campaign put extra pressures on them.
"My opponent in this race kept attacking the D. A.’s office, talking about cases that were pending at the time that we were unable to talk about," Korchak said. He said it made campaigning difficult because, by law, they were forbidden to comment on ongoing cases.
Moving forward, Korchak said one of the changes he wants to make within the D.A.'s office will help young prosecutors.
"I would prefer to have a little more training before they actually go to court and we’re working with the state prosecutor’s association to try and get," he said, "to make that happen."
Korchak replaces Steve Cornwell who stepped down to run for Congress.