Headlines for Thursday, November 10, 2022

After a close race for the 52nd State Senate seat, Democrat Lea Webb announced her victory midday Wednesday. Rich David, the Republican candidate and former Mayor of Binghamton, released a statement Wednesday afternoon congratulating Webb who took the race by about 1500 votes. Webb, a former Binghamton Councilwoman, says her campaign has been a people-powered movement and she looks forward to getting to work to bring equity to all New Yorkers.

On Wednesday, Democrat Josh Riley conceded the race for New York’s 19th Congressional seat to Republican Marc Molinaro. Riley highlighted commitments Molinaro made on the campaign trail to opposing a national abortion ban, increasing funding for mental health services, and creating jobs in the region. The Republican beat Riley by 2.2% or about 6,200 votes. Riley took Tompkins County by a 47 point margin or more than 24,000 votes. Democratic turnout in Tompkins was about 77% which is about 2% higher than in the last midterm election. However, that means about 7,400 Tompkins Democrats did not vote yesterday, more than enough to put Riley over the top. 

On Monday a piece in the Ithaca Voice detailed the reasons behind the departure of Ithaca’s former Director of Sustainability Louis Aguirre-Torres in late October. He told the Voice that his aggressive approach to meeting Ithaca’s sustainability goals were met with resistance by city staff—particularly City Attorney Ari Levine. He said that in an April meeting with Planning Director Lisa Nichols and Acting Mayor Laura Lewis, Nichols told him that the goals set by Ithaca’s Green New Deal were merely aspirational not meant to be actually met. Aguirre-Torres’ work had garnered national attention and $100 million in investments.

*Correction: A previous version of this item referred to Rich David as the Mayor of Binghamton. Mr David is, in fact, the former Mayor of Binghamton, having served from 2014-2021.