By Janine Stankus
Staff Reporter
With 98 percent of the precincts reporting, New York State senator Steven Saland swept last night’s race, scoring 58.8 percent of the vote in the 41st legislative district that includes all of Columbia and most of Dutchess County,
“I’m very happy, very pleased, and certainly honored,” said Saland, who was glad to have secured the confidence of the voters within the community he serves.
Saland, who has represented the district since 1990, beat out Democratic hopeful Ken Dow, former Columbia County Commissioner of Elections and Democratic Party Chairman, with a current count of 68,115 votes, to 47,673.
Dow spent his campaign vying for a Democratic majority in the New York State Senate, which has been dominated by the Republicans for over three decades. He asserts that the majority leaders have had a significant advantage as far as securing funds and passing legislation.
Although he will have to shelve his hopes for the time being, Dow is proud of his campaign, calling it a “great experience.”
“I think I made a good impression,” he said, “I gave people a choice.”
He also expressed his satisfaction at the fact that his campaign ran on “such a high standard of conduct,” free of dishonorable maneuvers that politicians so often resort to. He commended the Saland campaign for operating in an similarly honorable fashion.
Now that Saland has secured his position for another two years, he plans to tackle relevant issues, the current fiscal crisis being among the most pressing. According to the senator, the 2009-10 New York State budget will reflect a 10 to 12 million-dollar deficit. “All of us need to work together in a bipartisan manner in order to resolve this crisis,” he said.
Saland also called for the reform of real property taxes within the state. His plan is to convince the state to curb spending so that it may provide funds to municipalities, allowing them to lower local property taxes.
“This has certainly been a long and a hard fought campaign,” said Saland, though the results of last night’s election show that his support within the district is strong.
Though this was a disappointing loss for Dow, we have surely not seen the last of him. “I certainly want to serve the public in whatever capacity I can,” he said. “Running for another public office is certainly a possibility.”