Shandaken, Olive, Hurley election results

Olive chooses Leifeld…again (unofficially, that is)

Berndt Leifeld

For the first time in memory, Olive Democrats were the challenged party at the polls on Election Day, 2011, with both their candidates for town council knocked out, and longstanding supervisor Berndt Leifeld left to chalk up a narrow win as a “possibility” instead of a “probability” this past Wednesday.

In other words, as of the unofficial numbers released on November 9, Leifeld was besting Republican/Conservative challenger Cindy Johansen by only 35 votes, with 61 absentee and other ballots still to be counted. Leifeld, seeking a twelfth term held a 741-706 lead over Johansen, who would have win by 49-12 in the counting of the absentee ballots, a high improbability, in order to overtake the incumbent.

“I have not conceded until they have been counted,” said Johansen on Wednesday.

“I’m not used to this kind of an election,” noted Leifeld, who added that he has tended to win his races in the last eleven elections by a two to one margin. “The storm didn’t help me. It seems they had to blame it on somebody.”

For town council, incumbent Republican/Conservative candidate Peter Friedel ended up being the election’s big vote getter in Olive, taking a total 880 votes, followed by his Republican/Conservative running mate Donald Van Buren with 724 votes. Democratic newcomer Ternice Winne came in third with a final tally of 652 votes, while incumbent Democrat Henry Rank lost his bid for a third four-year term with 600 votes.

Ron Wright, unopposed for town justice, won another term with 1,204 votes.

GOP trend

Although Leifeld chalked up his party’s poor showing, and his own close race, to what he termed “a nasty election,” the unofficial tallies played to a trend started with Friedel’s first win four years ago, and a subsequent weakening of numbers on the Democrat’s side. Also on view were a gradual weakening of voter turnout in recent years, with this year’s election numbers approximately two-thirds of what they were in 2005, the last time there was a major Democratic victory in town; and three quarters of what they were two years ago, when Leifeld faced his first somewhat-close challenge in years. All told, Republicans were about equal to what they had been in 2007, when Friedel won a council seat in a race where he was the only challenger.

As for how the 61 outstanding votes break down, Leifeld said people he’d talked to were telling him such numbers tend to break down similar to the rest of the voting patterns evident in a year. And all he’d need would be 14 to win.

“How do they say it? There’s a possibility Cindy might win,” he added. “But not yet a probability.”++

 Paul Smart