Republican Paul Battisti has defeated Democrat Matt Ryan in the race for Broome County district attorney. Battisti, a private practice defense attorney, won with nearly 55% of the vote, according to unofficial results.
Battisti beat out current DA Michael Korchak in the Republican primary in June. He said it was a “long-fought battle,” but he’s excited to start the job.
“It's just amazing. I always say the [election] returns are like a roller coaster: you're high, you're low, you're in between. But just an incredible night, amazing supporters around me,” Battisti said.
In the next six weeks, Battisti said he’ll be busy working on some of the ideas he campaigned on. Those include expanding the school resource officer program, addressing vacancies in the DA’s office, and setting up a mental health court in the county.
“We've got six weeks until we take office; putting a team together, starting to implement plans, meeting with the legislature regarding funding, collaborating with different community partners to have these different programs that we talked about during the campaign in place,” Battisti said.
He said his opponent Matt Ryan ran a good campaign, even though they didn’t agree on much. Battisti said he is open to speaking with all his constituents, even those who voted for Ryan, moving forward.
In a statement on social media, Ryan wrote: “We ran a great campaign and said what needed to be said: tough on crime isn’t working and cracking down harder isn’t a plan for justice. We are so proud of all the people we supported and the blue wave that just swept the area!”
Democratic candidates secured a majority of seats on the Binghamton City Council Tuesday. Until the election, Republicans held a narrow 4 to 3 majority on the council.
In other races in Broome County, Democrat Maria Sexton beat out the incumbent and Conservative candidate John Schaeffer and Republican Theodore Wolf in the race for Vestal town supervisor, with 47% of the vote.
In Endicott, Republican Nicholas Burlingame won the race for mayor Tuesday night with 52% of the vote.