By Chip Rowe
Maloney Takes Fourth Term
Sean Patrick Maloney, a Democrat whose 18th District in the U.S. House includes the Highlands, won his fourth term on Nov. 6, defeating Republican challenger Lawrence O’Donnell, an Orange County legislator, 53-44.
Delgado Wins in 19th District
Antonio Delgado, a Democrat, defeated incumbent Republican John Faso to represent New York’s 19th District, which includes northern Dutchess County, in the U.S. House. With 100 percent of precints reporting, the unofficial results showed Delgado with about 7,600 more votes of 268,000 cast, winning 49.3 percent over Faso’s 46.4 percent.
Galef Keeps Assembly Seat
Sandy Galef, the Democrat who represents the 95th District in the state Assembly, which includes Philipstown, won re-election over her 21-year-old Republican challenger, Lawrence Chiulli, 65 percent to 31 percent.
Murphy Loses State Senate Seat
Terrence Murphy, a Republican whose state Senate district includes eastern Putnam County, appears to have lost his bid for re-election to his Democratic challenger, Peter Harckham. Harckham received 57,281 Election Day votes, or 50 percent, and Murphy got 55,160, or 48 percent, a difference of 2,121 votes among 115,000 cast.
State Supreme Court, 9th District
Putnam County Court Judge James Reitz, who was a candidate for one of seven open seats as a state Supreme Court justice for the 9th Judicial District, which includes Putnam, Dutchess, Westchester, Orange and Rockland counties, will remain with the county court after finishing ninth in a field of 10.
The Supreme Court is not the highest in the state — that is the Court of Appeals, whose seven justices are nominated by a committee and appointed by the governor. Instead, there is a Supreme Court for each county, with 324 justices statewide, each of whom serves a 14-year term. They primarily handle civil cases.
There are 29 justices in the 9th District, which is headquartered in White Plains.
The seven justices who will fill the seats after Tuesday’s election are all Democrats, and three — Kathie Davidson, William Giacomo and Joan Lefkowitz — are incumbents. The others are David Everett and Barry Warhit, both Westchester County judges; Hal Greenwald, a Yonkers Family Court judge; and Thomas Zugibe, the Rockland County district attorney.
Dutchess courts
In Dutchess County, the race between Republican Karen Hagstrom and Democrat Jeffrey Martin for a seat on the Family Court will come down to absentee votes, as Martin received only 115 more votes than Hagstrom of 101,704 cast. Michael Hayes, a Republican, was elected as a justice on the Surrogate Court over Democrat Thomas Mansfield with 51 percent of the vote.
