Murphy winner in 20th CD
In late April, Democrat Scott Murphy was finally recognized as the official winner of the special election in the 20th Congressional District for the U.S. House of Representatives seat vacated by Kirsten Gillibrand.
After weeks of counting and recounting ballots, Murphy’s opponent, Jim Tedisco, conceded the race and Murphy was officially recognized as the winner of this nail-biter by a margin of 726 votes out of a total of 160,940 votes cast.
Tedisco resigned his position as minority leader of the state Assembly but will continue to represent the 110th District.
“We’ve supported Jimmy for the Assembly and he has done a good job there,” said PEF Vice President Joe Fox, “but we endorsed Murphy for the 20th CD because we feel he’s well qualified and we need Democrats in Congress to support the changes President Obama is trying to make.”
“Our Region 8 members got out and worked very hard for Murphy in this intense campaign,” said Region 8 Coordinator Tom Comanzo. “Our members participated in “Labor-to-Labor” canvassing in Saratoga and Rensselaer Counties. We went out on about five or six weekends to visit labor households for Murphy.”
Comanzo said Region 8 members and retirees also operated phone banks for Murphy for seven nights over a two-week period leading up to the March 31 election. In addition, PEF sent letters to its members in the sprawling 20th CD to notify them of Murphy’s endorsement.
– Sherry Halbrook
