The results in the Second Assembly District primary contest for the Independent Party line are up in the air after a very poor turnout in yesterday’s election.
Newcomer Thomas Schiliro, a Democrat, received 126 votes to incumbent Republican Anthony Palumbo’s 114 votes.
The first-term incumbent is not conceding defeat in the primary.
“I am currently down 12 votes, but 49 absentee ballots are outstanding,” Palumbo said in an email this afternoon. He said he expected the absentee ballots to be counted within the week.
“The next few days should be interesting,” Palumbo said.
Schiliro thanked his supporters in a press release issued today and expressed confidence that yesterday’s result will stand.
“Long Island families have made their voices heard,” he said. “They’re sick and tired of the corruption plaguing Albany. They want property tax cuts, good-paying jobs, equality for all and a government that works for them, not special interests.”
According to unofficial results tabulated by the Suffolk County Board of Elections, Schiliro bested Paulumbo 32 to 22, but Palumbo edged out Schiliro in Riverhead, 33 to 31.
There were 2,262 Independence Party voters in Riverhead as of 2013, according to Suffolk BOE data.
Schiliro lives on a horse farm in Manorville and works as a Suffolk County Parks police sergeant; he formerly owned Saddle Rock Stables in Brookhaven.
Palumbo, a lawyer who lives in New Suffolk, defeated Democrat John McManmon of Aquebogue last November in a special election to fill the State Assembly seat vacated by fellow Republican Dan Losquadro. Losquadro left the seat after his March 2013 election to the post of Brookhaven Town highway superintendent.
The district, designated the First Assembly District until redistricting last year when it was reshaped and renamed the Second Assembly District, has long been a Republican stronghold. Losquadro’s predecessor, Marc Alessi, elected in a special election in 2005 was the first Democrat in history to represent the district in Albany.
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