Democratic Primary for Commissioner of Finance To Be Determined by Absentee Ballots

An unofficial tally appears to have Patty Morrison ahead of Michele Madigan by 19 votes in the Democratic Primary to determine who will be the Democratic candidate for Commissioner of Finance in the general election in November. According to the Saratoga County Board of Elections there are 96 absentee ballots that will be counted on Tuesday, July 2. Should Madigan lose the Democratic primary she will still be on the November ballot on  the Working Families and the Independence Party lines.

21 thoughts on “Democratic Primary for Commissioner of Finance To Be Determined by Absentee Ballots”

  2. I don’t understand. Michelle has put the city on real firm financial footing, promotes clean energy, is accessible. Why remove her? I’m not buying she’s ‘not ethical’ line.

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  3. It is so very unfortunate that voters have been taken in by untruths and misrepresentations. I am concerned about our country and now our city. The divisiveness based in vengeance and vitriol is truly frightening.

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  4. I agree with John Veitch and countless others, that this result by 1394 registered Democrats was disappointing and ironically, it came down to 10 votes. There are still another some 90 plus absentee ballots to open, so this contest clearly isn’t over.

    More importantly, should this primary be settled by some 1450 voters, it should force a November contest with the greater number of the some 10,000 plus voters of all stripes. No denying our Commissioner’s support across the board for all her successes.

    We’ll have to wait.

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  5. The Dangling Participial wins?
    So goes 10th grade English Composition & Rhetoric.

    Well, the Brothers Grimm need to move quickly.
    Keith R is most assuredly going to jail.

    John T is soon to be released back into the wild.
    What do these four and the current stirrer-uppers have in common; if anything?

    Was JT’s prophesy true?
    Is Saratoga finally in decline?

    Food for thought.
    Next stop: Open Prepositions!

    -JC

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  6. Not the outcome we hoped for – Now we wait for the absentee ballots.

    That said – I am so proud of Michele and to have been part of her campaign team. She took the high road. She ran a positive campaign when it would have been so easy to do otherwise.

    I will follow her to November because no matter the final outcome of this primary – Saratoga Springs needs Michele Madigan!

    I’m proud to call her Commissioner and even more proud to call her FRIEND!

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  7. The independent voters will have a voice in November! It disappoints me that voters eat up fake news instead of looking at the facts in front of their faces! I suppose I should not be surprised, people seem to have given up on thinking across this country. They go with what feels good at the moment and then cry about the consequences when they discover they were useful idiots..

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  8. Jim—thanks so much for the link to this 2007 isaratoga blog post and the trip down memory lane….I think. It seems like déjà vu all over again only with a few ironic cast changes. It seems that Tom McTygue who was the object of all sorts of character attacks, false claims about nefarious doings (remember the assertion by the Keehniacs that the FBI was investigating him—still waiting for that report and those indictments) is now enthusiastically playing the role of tormenter employing similar tactics to try to bring down Michele Madigan. And she had nothing to do with his demise a decade ago so I’m not sure why he’s so deep into this except to support Patty because she’s his brother’s current girlfriend. Ah, family . I had forgotten too that Democrat Keehn had openly supported Republican Skippy. This is a history all the newbies who have come to town in the last decade and are now attempting their own disruption and coup should be aware of. It is a cautionary tale. “Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”

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    1. I always advise people to advance the discussion with new material that is often left off the table by benign intent. I am challenged by people of different opinions but, in the ensuing commentary I know that there is always the hope for enlightenment – mine and theirs. Those characters from isaratoga were all from our recent past. How we enjoyed them along with the local print medium that was compromised by sponsorship and advertisements. I’m afraid like national politics, too many people have little real idea what it is they are disrupting till it is gone, but I also believe that a strong faith in our way of life and government will result in our ultimate survival.

      Those blog threads would often run 60 or more comments. That city council celebrated their unity running on an early variation of progressive politics, then completely disintegrated. The new kids and the standing head of the last political dynasty never expected what would take only one election cycle to unravel. That is why, Saratogians have always relished keeping their officials on a two-year leash. It has worked, and it does work. Our governor stated today, in a timely observation. “If there is a low turnout, you can always be victim to a motivated minority. It’s always been that way, it always will be.”

      I know that 1400 voters are hardly representative of the voice of a community of 10,000 registered people but, like Custer on the 25th of June, there is room for surprises.

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    2. The FBI was inquiring about the use of DPW personnel being used on the McTygue farm, while on the city clock amongst other things. Their use of the dirty tricks they are using today, weren’t born out of thin air. They have always used them, just ask the Dwyer family. There are a list of other things they have done along the way, that spurred good acting democrats along the way to not support them. They have worked tirelessly since 2007 to undermine the department of public works, including getting Ken Ivins to lay off workers and drastically cut the budget, only to find the money months later. It was all by design, when Michele won, they tried to recruit her to continue the game, she declined to hurt the other departments and this is why they have attacked her over the years. Just ask her. She wouldn’t play along with them, so they have looked for others that would. This included supporting and campaigning along side Ivins and now this joke of a primary.

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      1. It might be important to note the Tom McTygue was driving DPW workers to the polls on Tuesday and you know he was not driving them there without knowing they would be voting for Patty – or even telling them they had to vote for her.

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  9. So the strategy of Turner, Boyd, Bullock, Altamari et al seems to be to do everything they can to elect someone incompetent (Ms. Morrison) to be Commissioner of Finance. When she screws up the city’s currently very sound financial standing they can use that as proof that the commission form of government doesn’t work and use it as fodder for their next charter change campaign. The well-being of the city does not seem to be on their radar–only winning at any cost.

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    1. They actually have already successfully elected several of those people. The whole “disunity” from Yepsen’s term was designed to make the council look like it could not act efficiently, making charter change more appealing. It was by design Yepsen did what she did. Sow discord.

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  10. Here is my take… this will be a short lived celebration in the Morrison camp for a few good reasons.
    1.) Primaries usually get very little attention and this one was no different. Also, given the moves up date, participation was gonna be low. This always gives the advantage to the motivated side that’s looking for change. In this case it was a small group of motivated voters upset about charter change coupled with leftover McTygue supporters. It was the very reason that the charter change group lobbied the city council for a May vote as opposed to a November referendum. In all actuality, with much of Michele’s support not paying attention or not really motivated, the fact that it was so close doesn’t bode well for Morrison.
    2.) Michele’s overall appeal with independent voters and republicans absolutely dwarfs Morrison’s. My guess is if Republicans voted for Michele over Ivins, they will do so in more numbers when they can get a chance to do so against Patty. Their support has been obvious in many ways.
    3.) Michele already has over 700 votes of support in the primary. It would seem unlikely that these votes would slide to Morrison in the general election. If the democrats turned out 5,000 people, Madigan would be sitting at over 14%, without even gaining a vote. That is way too many for Patty to give up, since her support from republicans is expected to be very small.

    There is still plenty of campaign left, should Morrison hold on to her slim margin. I do not think a party split gets us an upset in November but re-elects the incumbent in this race.

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  12. I think most people have a visceral reaction to uncivil inflammatory political attack ads on social media shared by the usual suspects in order to embolden their base. Let’s hope that substance over unfounded scathing sarcasm is the preferred mature mode as we look forward to another election season in Saratoga Springs. The electorate deserves it.

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    1. I think a lot of it is feeding into the perception that politicians are inherently bad. John Tighe once admitted to me that the McTygues got him to start the Saratoga in Decline blog for that express purpose. If a politician can get a group of friends to use social media, not to promote their candidate, but to spread negative propaganda about their opponents, then you can get what you explained, if there is no push back.
      The charter change group has implemented such strategy with their web pages, blogs and Facebook sites.

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  13. Like the 2018 Charter revision, which lost by only 10 votes, the acolytes of this blog blame Ms. Madigan’s loss on the ‘other half’ of voters. For people who claim to have the city’s interest, you sure do disdain it’s citizens.

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    1. With the low turnout of only 22% of the registered voters, the results gave the incumbent 49% and the challenger 51%. Not quite a decisive landslide. In November, given the Commissioner’s city-wide popularity, the point spread will no doubt be far greater. No blame.
      She’s back to work doing what she has always done best – getting things done for the city.

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