After Tuesday’s election, Democrats are poised to secure a supermajority of seats on the Binghamton City Council.
Several races are too close to call and absentee ballots are still being counted. But unofficial results show Democrats with solid leads in at least five races, upending a narrow Republican 4 to 3 majority.
Democratic candidates for city council celebrated at a watch party in downtown Binghamton Tuesday night. Rebecca Rathmell, whose race is still too close to call, stopped short of declaring victory, but congratulated her colleagues. She said Democrats set out to “flip the council.”
“So this group here is where you're going to see change in Binghamton over the next four-plus years, and we should all be proud of that,” Rathmell said.
Rathmell, running for the 6th District seat, is down by just seven votes against the Republican incumbent, Councilman Philip Strawn.
The race for the city’s 7th District is equally close. Democratic challenger Michael Dundon leads the sitting Republican council member, Thomas Scanlon, by six votes.
Despite those two races, Democrats are still poised to win two-thirds of the council.
Democrat Robert Cavanaugh ran unopposed in the 3rd District. In the 4th District, Democrat Nate Hotchkiss beat Republican Brian Nayor.
In the 5th District, Democrat Hadassah Mativetsky beat Republican Kevin Reilly. Mativetsky leads by 183 votes, or 57% of the vote.
“This is huge win. It's traditionally a swing seat. So you never know what's going to happen,” Mativetsky said. “Thank you so much to the voters for turning out for me today.”
Democrat Olamni Porter leads Republican Mary Ann Callahan in the 1st District by 90 votes. In the race for the 2nd District, Democrat Kinya Middleton is up by more than 100 votes against the Republican incumbent, Council Member Sophia Resciniti.
“I ran against a very popular incumbent. And I'm grateful for everyone who believed in me, my message,” Middleton said. “They saw the work that I do every single day of helping people, because that's what it's about, helping your neighbors.”
Absentee ballots postmarked by Nov. 7 are still coming in and being counted. The Broome County Board of Elections said it could take up to a week to count the over 3,500 ballots that were issued.