Roy McDonald easily won re-election Tuesday, according to unofficial election returns reported by Saratoga and Rensselaer counties.
With 88 percent of precincts reporting late Tuesday, McDonald, R-Saratoga, defeated his Democratic challenger, Joanne Yepsen, by 16 percentage points.
McDonald pulled in 58 percent of the vote to Yepsen’s 42 percent, according to unofficial returns reported on the two counties’ websites.
“Watch out — upstate’s coming back,” McDonald told supporters at the Holiday Inn in Sartoga Springs Tuesday night. “It’s about time upstate became part of New York state.”
McDonald has said he wants to continue to put pressure on the state to cut spending. He voted against the last two budgets.
Yepsen campaigned on being more visible and responsive than McDonald has been. In her concession speech Tuesday night at the Gideon Putnam Hotel in Saratoga Springs, she said she was proud of what her campaign accomplished.
“We keep getting closer every time we try, and one of these days, we’re going to take this seat back for the people,” she said.
McDonald noted he won the race without going negative, unlike Yepsen, who, along with the state Democrats, paid for ads criticizing McDonald.
McDonald was elected to the state Senate in 2008, beating Democrat Michael Russo after longtime state senator Joseph Bruno resigned.
Yepsen had sought the seat then but was disqualified from getting on the ballot because of problems with her petitions.
Before that, he was an assemblyman, and previous to that, he was Wilton town supervisor.
Yepsen, 51, is in her third term as a Saratoga County supervisor representing Saratoga Springs.
McDonald, 63, works part-time as a banker at M&T Bank, something Yepsen’s campaign criticized. He is originally from Troy, which is also in the district.
He is a grandfather of two autistic boys and has used his position to promote autism awareness.
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Categories: News, Schenectady County
