Ballston supervisor defeated in GOP primary

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Eric Connolly defeated Ballston Town Supervisor Timothy Szczepaniak in Tuesday's GOP primary.

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SARATOGA COUNTY

The incumbent Ballston town supervisor was defeated in a Republican primary on Tuesday, while the race for the Democratic nomination for Saratoga Springs finance commissioner remained close with all results in.

In the town of Ballston Republican primary, Schenectady High School teacher Eric Connolly overwhelmingly defeated incumbent town supervisor Timothy Szczepaniak in a race that hinged on the Connolly slate’s concerns about development in town. Connolly received 573 votes, to Szczepaniak’s 388, according to final but unofficial Saratoga County Board of Elections results.

Connolly’s running mates, current Town Board member Charles B. Curtiss and Peter J. Solberg, won the GOP nominations for two Town Board seats, defeating party-endorsed incumbent William A. Goslin.

“The residents spoke out in strong numbers and sent a clear message that they want change,” Connolly said Tuesday night. Szczepaniak, a two-term incumbent, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Szczepaniak and Goslin still have the Conservative and Independence lines in November.

In Saratoga Springs, challenger Patricia Morrison has potentially unseated current finance commissioner Michele Madigan. She had 736 votes to 705 for Madigan, according to final but unofficial returns.

The race potentially turns on 90 absentee ballots that will be opened by the Saratoga County Board of Elections.

Morrison, a product marketing manager at CommerceHub in Albany and current member of the Saratoga Springs Board of Education, campaigned on a platform of opening up city government to more voices, including potentially changing the current elected-commissioner form of government.

Madigan, who has been in office for eight years and campaigned on not having increased taxes during her tenure as the city’s chief budget officer, will have the Working Families and Independence parties ballot lines in November, and said last week she would campaign into the November election on those lines if she lost the primary.

— In a Milton Republican primary, Town Board member Benny Zlotnick lost in his bid to unseat town supervisor Scott Ostrander, with Ostrander receiving 757 votes to 469 for Zlotnick. Town Republican Committee-endorsed candidates Megan Soden and Antonio Bianchi defeated incumbent Town Board member Barbara Kerr and write-in candidate Ryan Isachsen. The Zlotnick, Kerr, Isachsen slate has other ballot lines for the November election, and is expected to continue campaigning.

Bianchi, a great-grandson of the late Schenectady mayor Frank Duci, was the top Town Board vote-getter, with 725 votes, to 698 for Soden and 578 for Kerr, according to final unofficial results. Isachsen got 187 write-in votes.

— In a Republican primary in Mechanicville, former city accounts commissioner Mark Seber defeated the incumbent accounts commissioner, Kimberly Dunn, by 160 votes to 66 votes, in final but unofficial results.

— In Corinth, there is a three-way Republican contest for two town justice posts, with Michael T. Woodcock and Lane J. Schermerhorn defeating Peter Gunning.