State to make the call in next step for 22nd Legislative District
By
Dave Dellecese
Story Created:
Nov 28, 2007 at 5:20 PM EST
Story Updated:
Nov 28, 2007 at 5:51 PM EST
It looks like New York State is going to have to settle the tie in Oneida County's 22nd Legislative District. And people in that district may be without representation for a few weeks while that tie unravels.
Republican Howard Welch and his Democratic opponent, Shannon Scott, each received 487 votes in the race for 22nd District Legislative seat in Oneida County. County Executive Anthony Picente thinks he's figured out the best way to unravel that tie.
"The request I sent to the board of legislators for today's action is to ask the governor to call for a special election," Picente said.
Howard Welch agrees that a special election is the way to go. Although he admits, it'll be a challenge to run a campaign in 40 days, as opposed to 40 weeks.
"It's going to be a compact type of certainly situation for getting your message across to the people for what you believe you can do in government," Welch said.
The governor can't call a special election until a vacancy occurs and that won't be until after the first of the year. That means the people of Oneida County's 22nd Legislative District will likely be without representation for a while
"Leaving the seat open for a 2 month period in my opinion and the opinion of board leadership is not a significant issue at this time," Picente said. "Obviously we would not want to leave it open for a longer period of time but it just makes sense to do it this way; it's clean it's open, it's a fair process."
Democrat Shannon Scott agrees with his republican opponent that a special election is the way to go. but he thinks it should be between the tied candidates only; himself and Welch.
"I think the people did decide between two candidates," Scott said. "And that's where I'm trying to go with it, since it boiled down to two tied individuals, it should be between the two tied individuals."
But New York doesn't have a run-off law or provision, which would confine a tie breaking special election to the 2 candidates who tied.
Picente says it looks like that means this is an open race.
3rd place candidate Steven Taylor has said recently he wants to run again. Democrat Shannon Scott has not returned our calls today.
