GHENT–Kinderhook Republican John Faso defeated Democrat Zephyr Teachout of Dover Plains in the race for the 19th Congressional District. Mr. Faso will replace Rep. Chris Gibson, also of Kinderhook, who did not seek reelection.
In Columbia County, with all districts reporting, the unofficial figures show Mr. Faso beating Ms. Teachout by 14,498 to 12,235. All of Columbia County is in the 19th District, but this is only one of the 11 counties in the district. The Poughkeepsie Journal reported that with all but a handful of districts reporting, Mr. Faso held a 10 percentage point lead.
In one of the two contested municipal races in the county Valatie Trustee Phillip Bickerton, a Republican, won a seat on the Kinderhook Town board, beating Matthew Nelson, a Democrat 2,337 to 1,761.
In the other municipal race, Chatham incumbent Town Board member John Wapner, an independent running on the Democratic line, was elected to the seat on the board that had had been appointed to earlier this year. He beat Republican challenger Jody Nesbitt by 1088 to 943 in the unofficial tally.
In Columbia County incumbent Republican state Senator Kathy Marchione easily turned back a challenge from Democrat Shaun Francis in the race for the 43rd Senate District seat. Mrs. Marchione’s unofficial total in Columbia County was 15064, with Mr. Francis receiving 10351. Green Party candidate got 559 votes in the county.
The more populous areas of the district are in Rensselaer and Saratoga counties and the Times Union reports that districtwide she received 62% of the vote compared to 36% for Mr. Francis.
In the only contested race for the state Assembly among the three districts that reach into Columbia County, incumbent Democrat Didi Barrett won reelection in the 106th District by a comfortable margin of around 56%, according to the Times Union, in her race against Copake Councilwoman Dr. Terry Sullivan. The county figures show that here Ms. Barrett had 8170 votes to 6,430 for Dr. Sullivan.
All four of the ballot propositions in communities around the county were resoundingly approved by voters Tuesday. Increases in funding for the Kinderhook Memorial Library were approved in the Towns of Kinderhook and Stuyvesant, and Hudson voters gave their approval for a service award program for volunteer firefighters and for an amendment to city ward boundaries that will eliminate the weighted voting method for members of the Common Council and replace it with each member having one vote.
Hillary Clinton won the state by a wide margin and she carried the county, but only narrowly based on the unofficial count. She received 10,195 votes to 9,629 for Donald Trump.
Incumbent U.S. Senator Charles Schumer cruised to victory in the county and statewide in his second match-up against Republican Wendy Long. The voting machine totals here were 16,557 for Mr. Schumer and 9,782 for Ms. Long.
A number of candidates were on the ballot but ran unopposed this year.
