Republican Patrick Perfetti was re-elected Cortland County District Attorney Tuesday, outpolling Democratic challenger Elizabeth McGrath by 2,243 votes to win a third four-year term.
Perfetti, of Cortland, also had the Conservative Party endorsement. McGrath, a Homer resident, was chief assistant district attorney under Perfetti before resigning in December 2020 after winning a $100,000 settlement from the county over anti-woman statements Perfetti had made. She also had the Working Families Party endorsement.
Perfetti won 11,411 to 9,198. Results are complete but unofficial.
Perfetti was first elected in 2016 in his first bid for office, outpolling then-DA Mark Suben by fewer than 200 votes.
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Unofficial results in greater Cortland area elections. Click here.
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The Perfetti-McGrath campaign became about experience: McGrath was critical of how Perfetti led the DA’s office, saying he had allowed too many positions to remain unfilled, and, lately, had been slow to fill vacancies on his staff. Perfetti had defended his record, saying he continues to win felony convictions at a rate higher than the state average.
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Unofficial results of greater Cortland voters in federal and state races. Click here.
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“I am honored and humbled to have again earned your trust to serve in this position,” Perfetti said in a statement issued late Tuesday. He cited the “resounding margin” by which he recorded his win.
Said McGrath, “I’m glad I ran, and I hope I shed some light on the problems in the DA’s office.” She said she will continue to serve on the Homer Village Board, and has not ruled out a run for the DA’s office in 2028.
In another election at the county level, Cortland County Legislator Kris Valentine Behnke narrowly lost her bid to continue the term to which she was appointed. Behnke, a Cortland Democrat, narrowly fell to Republican Jason R. Prentice.
Prentice wins a three-year term, representing District 5, 485-452. The seat is primarily the southeast corner of the city, plus a small amount of Cortlandville.
Behnke was appointed in July to fill the rest of the term of Susan Wilson, who had resigned for job reasons.
In races to represent wider areas:
•State Sen Lea Webb (D-Binghamton) comfortably won re-election over Challenger Mike Sigler of Lansing, a Republican, Tompkins County legislator. Preliminary results showed that Webb won by more than 14 percentage points in the heavily Democratic district, winning 74,740-to-55,690.
• In a Congressional campaign heavy on attack ads and allegations that the other candidate was lying, attorney Josh Riley, a Democrat from Ithaca, was leading incumbent Marc Molinaro (R-Catskill) by nearly 4,000 votes, 180,528-to-176,850. The race is a repeat of the 2022 matchup that Molinaro won. The district includes much of southern Cortland County.
• In a Syracuse-area Congressional race, Democrat John Mannion of Geddes, a state senator, flipped the seat held by Rep. Brandon Williams (R-Sennett), leading the race by 54%-46%, Wednesday afternoon. The district includes Cortland and much of northwestern Cortland County.
• Anna Kelles (D-Freeville) was re-elected to the 125th District Assembly seat that includes southwest Cortland County, pulling nearly 74% of the vote over a write-in candidate.
• Similarly, Jeff Gallahan (R-Manchester) was re-elected in the 131st District Assembly seat, which includes much of the rest of Cortland County. He was uncontested and took 71% of the vote.
