7th S.D.: Roundup

NEWSDAY SPIN CYCLE




BACK AND FORTH...DEMS HAVE THE STATE SENATE AND REDISTRICTING ON THE LINE HERE....REPS SEE THE BLOOD IN THE WATER AND WANT THIS OVER WITH...MATHEMATICALLY IT IS OVER FOR JOHNSON....UNLESS THEY DO A COMPLETE RECOUNT OF ALL THE PAPER BALLOTS...........I THINK IT WOULD BE EASIER TO HIT THE LOTTO THAN FOR THAT TO HAPPEN........STAY TUNED...........

7th S.D.: Johnson's rationale for staying in court

4:42 PM By Dan Janison

In response to the statement published earlier from Scott Reif in the GOP:/ Jack Martins camp that "we're hopeful that Craig Johnson won't delay this State from moving forward by dragging out this election,"  Johnson's chief of staff, Richard Azzopardi, offers a two-pronged response.
For one thing, he says, the judge in the case clearly intends to abide by time limits that were imposed by Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman, which approach next week. For another, he says, this is the first time that the new voting machines are in use and the treatment of audits and hand-counts of all-paper ballots could set new legal precedent on the degree to which all votes get counted in an election.

Close-race play book: The leading party v. the trailing party

2:36 PM By Dan Janison

One of the hilarities of our duopoly form of governance emerges when Democrats and Republicans read from the same play book depending on how they see the needs of the moment.
In the 7th S.D., the Republican Jack Martins leads and Democratic incumbent Craig Johnson trails in the recount process; In the 1st C.D., Democratic incumbent Tim Bishop leads and GOP challenger Randy Altschuler .
Both of the couple-hundred-vote leaders are accusing the trailers of stalling the inevitable. As you can see in the statements issued below in the last few hours, the parties might have consolidated operations by issuing joint releases for the leadres and the trailers:
From the Martins-GOP side:
Jack Martins now leads Craig Johnson by 438 votes, an insurmountable lead with no more than 135 objected-to absentee ballots still to be counted. Of those 135 ballots, 123 were submitted by registered Republicans, 8 by registered Democrats and 4 from individuals not registered in a political party.
 More than four weeks after Election Day, Craig Johnson is left with two choices: He can do the right thing and concede this race, as his Democrat colleague in Buffalo did yesterday, or he can continue to tie up state government by arguing for a hand recount of tens of thousands of votes that have already been counted.
 It' time for Craig Johnson to accept the will of the voters of the 7th Senate District, and work with Jack Martins on a smooth and orderly transition. With Martins' victory, Republicans have won a majority in the State Senate, and are prepared to work with Governor-elect Cuomo in a bipartisan way to solve the fiscal challenges that are before us. We're hopeful that Craig Johnson won't delay this State from moving forward by dragging out this election.
 From Bishop's camp:


Yaphank-- Congressman Tim Bishop picked up more than 20 votes this morning to extend his lead to 247 votes as each side dismissed 80 of its challenges. With Suffolk County Supreme Court Judge Peter Mayer coming to the Board of Elections today at 3pm, Bishop's team will be pushing for rulings on challenged ballots in an effort to declare a winner in this election, the last unresolved House race in the country.
"It's December, we're the last race, it's time to count ballots and determine a winner," Bishop spokesman Jon Schneider said. "As Tim Bishop continues to pick up votes and the amount of uncounted ballots continues to decrease, Mr. Altschuler is rapidly running out of avenues to make up the difference. At this point, Randy Altschuler's only path to victory is paved by disenfranchising several hundred citizens."
Altschuler is holding 1146 of the remaining challenged ballots, of which 649 are residency challenges. Bishop is willing to withdraw a significant amount of objections in exchange for an equal number of voters who have been challenged by Altschuler.
Additionally this morning, the Republicans agreed to view, but not officially count 162 valid ballots which were not scanned on election night. Those ballots showed a net gain of 12 votes for Bishop, which the incumbent will ask Judge Mayer be added to the count. An additional nine votes which were found in emergency ballot sleeves by the Board of Elections were also counted this morning, Bishop and Altschuler each received four votes with one under vote.