Democrats will take the majority in the Cayuga County Legislature for the first time since the Legislature was established more than 40 years ago after winning four of five contested races Tuesday.
Mark Farrell will keep his District 4 seat, Aileen McNabb-Coleman will take the District 6 seat, Joseph DeForest will take the District 8 seat and Joseph Bennett will keep the District 10 seat, according to county Board of Elections unofficial results.
Incumbent Republican Michael Didio had a four-vote lead Tuesday night, meaning that absentee ballots will be needed to decide his race against Democrat Dominic Basile.
The Democrats take the majority in seats and in weighted voting. With the current results, the Democrats hold a weighted vote of 530 and the Republicans 305, not including the election results for District 14.
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District 4: Farrell will keep his seat against challenger Christopher Petrus with unofficial votes tallying 360-314.
Farrell, the incumbent, owns and operates White Chapel Funeral Home. He wants to see the county have a better business plan that prioritizes funding and investments in capital improvements.
Petrus is a corrections officer at Auburn Correctional Facility. His family has always been involved in public service, and Petrus has continued that tradition. He has been the town chair and vice chair for the Cayuga County Republican Committee, and he's also served as a representative on the state committee.
District 6: McNabb-Coleman will take the Legislature seat from incumbent Joseph Runkle based on the unofficial county Board of Elections tally of 1,187-963.
McNabb-Coleman is a substitute teacher for the Auburn Enlarged City School District. She's a co-founder of the Owasco Farmers Market, an activist leader for the National Sclerosis Society, a board member for the Literacy Volunteers of America and a member of the Owasco Watershed Lake Association. She wants to see the county focus on cleaning up Owasco Lake as well as improve roads and infrastructure.
In addition to his service on the county Legislature, Runkle has served on the board for the Boy Scouts of America, the American Red Cross, the YMCA and United Way.
District 8: Joseph DeForest defeated incumbent Hans-Peter Pecher 583-443, according to unofficial poll results.
DeForest is retired from Wells College where he was the technical director and facilities manager for the Theatre and Dance Department. While he advocates for the preservation of District 8's agricultural landscape, he doesn't want to see it stuck in the past. He wants to see the county increase broadband coverage in his area.
A farmer by trade, Pecher has been a long-standing advocate of preserving the rural character of District 8 and keeping government and private enterprise separate. Prior to his service on the Legislature, Pecher was the town supervisor of Genoa for 18 years.
District 10: Incumbent Bennett defeated Jennifer Young 323-206, according to unofficial poll results.
Bennett has worked as a maintenance technician at Cayuga Community College, which almost lost him his seat on the county Legislature due to raised concerns about conflict of interest. He fought to stay on, and has since pushed to bring the city and county together in order to create more jobs in the community.
Young is a registered nurse and clinical analyst at Auburn Community Hospital, the same hospital where she was born. She is also an avid volunteer with her church and its youth programs.
District 14: The race is a close one. According to unofficial vote totals Tuesday night, Didio leads Basile by four votes — 445-441. The Board of Elections said that 113 absentee ballots were issued and 68 had been returned by Tuesday. Absentee ballots will not be counted until Tuesday, Nov. 10.
Didio has been an advocate for Owasco Lake for the last four years on the county Legislature. He is the chair of the Owasco Lake Watershed Management Council, and he has worked closely with the Cayuga County Soil and Water District. He believes the lake needs to continue to be a priority for the county.
Basile is a self-made businessman, operating S&D Tech Sales for the last 17 years. He's an Auburn native, who ran against Didio in 2011, an election that also had to wait for absentee ballots to be counted. Didio won that race by 18 votes.
Staff writer Gwendolyn Craig can be reached at (315) 282-2237 or gwendolyn.craig@lee.net. Follow her on Twitter @gwendolynnn1.