What I write below started as a comment in response to John Roach in response to this post, but as I wrote, I realized this is probably just my wrap up commentary on the 26th District congressional race. So, first John's excellent comment, and then my response.

It could have been the DNC negative ads that killed off Alice. Who ever came up with the Chris Lee was fired line at the last minute did Alice no good. Even if the charge is true, the way it came out, and at the last minute, made it look like a stunt. The China thing the national DNC lied about did not help either.

Chris told and/or his side told lies also. It just seems the side that lied the most lost.

John, Chris negative ads, as I said, were pretty devoid of substance -- "liberal trial lawyer" ... "she will raise taxes" ... scripted in 1988.  They had nothing to do with who Alice Kryzan really is, but painted her as characterture. They were relentless.

But I think the ads had the effect they were meant to have, which I didn't really think about until last night: They kept the base loyal.  Lee wasn't really trying, with those ads, to appeal to swing voters, just keep the GOP in the GOP column.  Drown out any positive message Kryzan might have.

And you're right, the DCCC did Kryzan no favors.  Whatever chance Kryzan had, the DCCC killed it. First, the negative ads were over the top and in no way truthful.  Second, they also crowded out Kryzan's message and didn't allow Alice to be Alice. In the end, they played right into the Lee/GOP strategy of muting Kryzan's plans and policy voice.

Kryzan's one chance of winning was to run a campaign of substance on issues, and not make it about Chris Lee. The DCCC tried to make it about Lee. Big mistake.

And you're right about the "fired" thing. I hadn't considered it from that light before. And in that light, you could make the case that the Kryzan campaign mishandled it, because they really tried to play it up.  Langworthy and Lee probably made stick the counter spin of "Kryzan's desperate campaign."

But let's face it, Jon Powers didn't do Kryzan many favors. He was slow to endorse her, and my sense from that is that the Democratic base was then slow to rally to her cause. He didn't start soon enough with the effort to get his name off the Working Families line. He didn't get out on the campaign trail for her soon enough.

That said, I'm optimistic that Chris Lee is a decent fellow.  I've met him once and he left a favorable first impression on me.  I remain concerned that he'll be a "reliable GOP vote" rather than an independent voice of and for the district. I would love a chance to sit down and talk with him at some length about his plans and his policies. Also, he's going to have a very tough job as a freshman congressman working within a decimated GOP minority.

Much has been made over earmarks (pork) the past two years, but the fact is, if you want to target meaningful reductions in Federal spending, pork is a poor choice of where to begin with the knife. Earmarks make up less than 5 percent of the Federal budget. But what earmarks do is allow a congressman to return some taxpayer money to the district.

If used to help build roads, upgrade other infrastructure, finance green business start ups, help local agencies get jobs done they could otherwise not afford, than earmarks help create jobs and make life better in a district. Earmarks shouldn't be used just to do favors for campaign donors.

So here's to hoping Lee will fight for the 26th District's share of pork, and then some.

As for being a "reliable GOP vote," I guess there are two ways of looking at that.  With the GOP in such dire straits in the House, the Republicans sticking together as the opposition party might have some mollifying effect on the Democrats (nothing against Democrats, but in any two-party Constitutional government, there should be some sort of opposition).

On the other hand, Lee has just won a seat that almost guarantees him no more than two terms in office (it will likely be eliminated in redistricting in 2012). The GOP is in disarray and will go through a good deal of soul searching and a few internal battles as it tries to rebuild a meaningful philosophical core.  That may take a generation or two, just as it did post-Hoover This would be a great time for a man like Lee to step out and define himself as an independent voice. It could be what makes or breaks his political career from 2012 onward.

There's no reason Lee can't fashion a voice and voting record that stands in opposition to the most extreme of Democratic plans, but doesn't kowtow to the Republican House leadership.  It will be interesting to see which path Lee chooses.  I haven't given up hope that Lee did what he had to do -- go along with the GOP election strategy  -- in order to safely win the seat, but that he has within him the capability to now step forward and better define himself as a legislator and as a representative.

We're still waiting on the final numbers in the race for the 61st State Senate District. With 85 percent of the districts reporting in Erie County, however, Republican Mike Ranzenhofer looks set to claim victory in his contest with Democrat Joe Mesi. Ranzenhofer pulled 49,870 votes in that county. Mesi received 44,183 votes.

We got Ranzenhofer on the phone a few minutes ago to get his thoughts on the victory.

"It feels great. I'm very exicted about having the opportunity to represent the people of Genesee and Erie counties and go to Albany and solve some of these very severe problems, these financial problems. I'm looking forward to getting to work and rolling up my sleeves and getting started.

"In my speech tonight, I congratulated Joe on a well-run, hard-fought, close race. Joe was a gentleman."

What is the first item on your agenda upon arriving in Albany?

"I have no first agenda item. I have a couple of items of dealing with the lack of economic opportunities and jobs in this area. My first order of business is to propose legilslation to cut taxes across the board. I will try to relieve some of the burdens and regulations placed on small businesses."

For more about Ranzenhofer's thoughts on dealing with the state's financial woes, please check out our video interview with Ranzenhofer that was posted last week.

Genesee County saw a couple of very tight races tonight.

Republican Michael Davis beat out Democrat Lawrence Stabell for the open seat on the Darien Town Board by a margin of 68 votes (677 to 609)—a third candidate, Conservative Richard Wurl, picked up 43 votes.

The race was even closer in Le Roy, but Democrat Thomas Stella held onto his seat on the Town Board. He beat out Republican Robert Taylor Jr. by a margin of 62 votes (1,468 to 1,406).

Republicans Donald Coleman and Robert Youngfleisch retained their positions as Genesee County coroners, beating out newcomer Nicole Brady, who ran on the Conservative line. Coleman and Youngfleisch pulled 11,016 and 12,014 votes, respectively. Brady received 4,389 votes.

It looks like Republican Chris Lee will win the day in the 26th Congressional District. With 498 of 631 districts reporting, Lee has pulled 106,168. Kryzan landed 77,900. CNN reports that Genesee County voters followed pretty cleanly along those lines: 6,718 of county residents pulled the lever for Lee; 3,603 for Kryzan. (Those seem to be the only numbers yet available for Genesee County. We expect a fax from the county Board of Elections within the hour.)

We're waiting on word from the Lee camp. We'll be sure to pass along a statement from that campaign when we get it.

(Update - 11:36pm): We've received a statement from Lee on his victory.

"Tonight we are one step closer to getting Western New York and our country back on track.

"We are now going to take to Washington our agenda of job creation, lowering taxes and making government more accountable.

"What has brought me here tonight has truly been a team effort – I owe a debt of gratitude to the dedicated group who helped run this campaign, to the incredible number of volunteers and the more than 1,300 supporters who invested their resources into our message. I am grateful to my family for their love and support. They have been incredible.

"My career has been solely in private sector these past 20 years. I will bring a much needed voice to Washington as someone who knows how difficult it is to earn a dollar and will therefore be a much better steward of your hard-earned tax dollars.

"This is a victory worth celebrating – but we certainly have our work cut out for us, and I will need your help and support in the months ahead."

We've still got plenty of precincts that have yet to report, but in many races, we're past the half way point and we're looking at growing leads for Republicans Mike Ranzenhofer and Chris Lee. Ranzenhofer leads Democrat Joe Mesi 29,049 to 27,483 in Erie County. Lee leads Kryzan 78,301 to 57,615 throughout the district, according to the Democrat & Chronicle.

Election results are startin to come in from Erie County—we will likely have to wait until after 10 o'clock to hear about the results out of Genesee County.

In Erie, Republican Mike Ranzenhofer leads Democrat Joe Mesi in the 61st State Senate District by a very slim margin of 107 votes and two percentage points. Republican Chris Lee leads Democrat Alice Kryzan in the 26th Congressional District by a margin of 135 votes. That's especially unfortunate for Kryzan as Jon Powers pulled exactly that many votes on the Working Families line, though Powers stands no chance to win the race, having lost the Democratic nod to Kryzan in the primary.

Totals in the race for the 61st are from about 10 percent of the districts reporting. Those for the 26th are from about 6 percent.

We will post more results as they come in. In addition to Genesee County, we're also waiting on results for Wyoming, Monroe and Livingston counties.

(Update - 9:47pm): Rochester's Democrat & Chronicle has some more comprehensive numbers up. Nothing from Monroe or Genesee. Yet, they show Lee with a more significant lead over Kryzan right now, 19,490 and 13,992 respectively. The gap in Erie County also seems to be growing.With 24 percent of the precincts reporting there, Kryzan has a total of 8,832 to Lee's 9,377.

We tried to catch some first-time voters as they came out of the polls today in Batavia. Unfortunately, we only ran into a handful of them, and only three were willing to chat with us on camera. All three of them were girls, and all three voted Democrat, at least in the presidential election. Here's what they had to say:

While we were down at the Democratic headquarters this afternoon, 26th Congressional Candidate Alice Kryzan, who was stopping by on her tour across the district throughout the day. We asked Kryzan how the day had gone and what she saw on the campaign trail.

Earlier today, we stopped by the Genesee County Democratic and Republican headquarters in Batavia to see how the campaigns were doing as we come down the stretch. It couldn't have worked out better, as we ran into everybody's favorite Democrat Dan Jones and everybody's favorite Republican Jay Grasso.

Here's what they had to say about how hard they're working and why their side will win tonight. Who sounds more convincing?

How many voters haven't paid close attention to the election, just saw the negative commercials and then decided to vote for the third-party candidate?

Blogger Lauren, from Rochester, suggests she was planning to vote for Jon Powers:

The problem is that I've been watching Rochester TV for the past two months and can recite word for word all the low budget smear campaign commercials of local political hopefuls there.

I know all about Alice Kryzan and Chris Lee and how Alice accuses Chris of sending jobs to China and only caring about his small business making money, and Chris likes to constantly remind everyone how Alice is a "liberal trial lawyer". Truth be told, I side with Alice because at least she's acquainted with the law. Chris owns some electrician business or something equally unrelated to politics and is probably just trying to get in office so he can vote against Joe the Plumber taxes and maybe lower minimum wage. If I voted in Rochester, I'd probably vote for a third party guy simply because he didn't subject me to ominously voiced-over shitty commercials for two months, and leaving me the hell alone during It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is what I truly value in a candidate.

Despite every effort to get Kryzan on the Working Families line, the courts kept Powers, who reportedly moved out of state, on it.

It will be interesting to see how many votes that line gets and then speculate whether it could have made a difference.

While these elections haven't really captured my attention, I always like to know what is going on around town. I went out to visit a few polling stations in the city (Holland Land Office, Robert Morris, YMCA) and for an early afternoon while most people are still at work, there was a decent turnout.

I talked with a lot of people about the importance of doing their duty as Americans and making that vote. Many of the people were very passionate about that.

Some of the volunteers I spoke with said that the early morning saw a ton of Batavians out voting and they expect it to be swamped after people get out of work.

 As I was out checking out some polling spots in Batavia, I happened to notice some fire trucks on Union St.

I stopped to see what was going on and it wasn't anything too serious, but somebody lost their lawnmower.

Apparently some dry leaves got caught up in the mower and started the blaze.

We're going to get a little air time on WHAM tonight. Evan Dawson has invited me to appear on the the station's 10 p.m. election coverage.  I'll be there to talk about the 26th District Congressional race.

For anybody visiting The Batavian for the first time from the link on Evan's blog, you can check out our congressional race coverage on this link or this link.

And Evan called me a Libertarian.  I'd never use the big L -- being non-partisan, or the slightly insulting "blank" in New York political lingo  -- and I think more apt is decentralist and localist, and of course a strong belief in individual liberty.

Thanks to my friend Rottenchester of the Fighting 29th blog for arranging this. It will be the first time 16 years that I've been on TV as a journalist to talk about elections.

Pontillo's closed Monday morning and will remain that way for a couple of weeks or more, according to the Daily News. The restaurant will undergo renovations in that time.

In other news, the city school district—along with others all over the state—have been warned "to brace themselves about future state aid," according to Pat Burk, Batavia's Board of Education president. More info should become available in a couple weeks.

We encourage you to pick up a copy of the Daily News at your local newsstand. Or, better yet, subscribe at BataviaNews.com.

The battle between Democrat Alice Kryzan and Republican Chris Lee for the 26th Congressional District is entering the ninth inning, and the someone from the GOP opposition has called in a pinch hitter. There's only one problem, the slugger won't tell us his name.

The Kryzan campaign is alleging that an anti-Kryzan flier that has been arriving on doorsteps in Amherst this morning is illegal. In fact, campaign spokesperson Anne Wadsworth told us that the campaign crew that arrived at the volunteer center in Amherst at 5:30 this morning found a flier waiting for them. They have not yet gathered how many have gone out, nor how widely distributed they are, but we should find out more as the day goes on.

"Telling lies about Alice's record is nothing new for Chris Lee and his supporters," said Wadsworth. "But to put this out on election day is a continuation of the smear campaign they've been running. We know that Chris Lee has problems with ethics, but this effort by his supporters to mislead voters today—of all days—shows blatant disregard for the election laws and the truth."

A representative of the campaign for Chris Lee told us that they were not aware of any such fliers being distributed. We're waiting on an official statement from them that should come later this morning.

Genesee County Democratic Elections Commissioner Dawn Cassidy told us that if the flier were placed in a mailbox, the activity would certainly be illegal. Also, if it's a paid advertisement—negative or not—whoever paid for it has to say so on the flier.

However, says Cassidy, "if someone's running off Xerox copies from home, I don't know how we can track it down. ... If they put it in a mailbox and there's no postage, that's a problem. But still, I don't know how we can stop that."

Have you heard of any last ditch attempts to sway the vote that don't seem so kosher? Send us your reports of any potential problem you encounter at the polls, at home or at work today. We'll be sure to get them right up on our site.

The NY Department of Elections has release final voter registration totals for 2008 (PDF).

In Genesee County

In the 26th Congressional District:

This photo and video footage of last night's fire in Pavilion, at an apartment above the Post Office, was submitted by Kevin Clary.

No one was injured in the blaze. Check out our earlier post for the details.

If you had to pick a race statewide that could determine what party has the majority in the New York State Senate, look no further than the 61st Senate District. Democratic candidate Joe Mesi is taking on Republican Mike Ranzenhofer in a very close and hotly contested race.

Tonight, Mesi held a gathering in Batavia. At left it was I encountered when I pulled up to park for the event. What I didn't get on camera was the half-dozen Ranzenhofer supporters that decided they would stand in front of the event's venue - Main Street Cafe - holding Ranzenhofer signs. Apparently they decided that since the Democrats had been doing it for awhile in front of their headquarters, they would do it on the eve of the election.

But inside the event was a great atmosphere. At its peak, the event had 40-50 people. There were people of all ages in attendance for pizza, mingling with Mesi and a nice enjoyable evening before Election Day.

Mesi also addressed the crowd. You can hear the bulk of his remarks in this video:  

I remember first meeting Joe Mesi. That was nearly seven months ago. You could tell then that he was still learning. He was educating himself about the important issues and told the story that led to his candidacy. His brother lost his job at American Axle and that motivated Mesi to run for office.

Since my interview with Mesi, he has evolved into quite a candidate. His Plan for Change is pure genius. I say that because he put his platform into an easy-to-read booklet that was available at his campaign headquarters and handed out tonight at the gathering. Candidates usually use basic talking points on the stump or ramble on about what their policy positions are. Instead of doing that, Mesi decided to put his plans and his positions on paper for the world to see. That way, if there are any questions about where he stands, you can refer to the booklet.

So why should the people of the 61st Senate District elect Joe Mesi their state senator? Mesi is genuine. He truly cares about Western New York. This is where he built his life. This is where he became a heavyweight boxer. This is where he became a local star. And this is where he wants to stay, raise his own family and better the region that has given so much to him. He will be a great state senator for Erie and Genesee counties and he will represent them well.

Rochester's Democrat & Chronicle has put together a nice package for Election Day. They're running a live blog throughout the day, allowing reporters—and readers—to file photographs, video and narrative sippets from the field. Here's some of what I found by digging around the site this morning:

Obama has edge among Buffalo Bills players... Yep, that's right. A reporter in the Bills locker room polled the players on their pick for president. This article is quite funny. After a lengthy quote from Bills quarterback Trent Edwards—in which he declaims the need for, you got it, "serious change"—the reporter, whose name is not amended to the article, writes:

Edwards appears to be in the majority, according to my totally unscientific, random poll of 15 Bills players. Obama received about 60 percent of the vote to 27 percent for Republican John McCain with 13 percent undecided. Our poll's margin for error? Huge.

"I don't know if we're exactly representative of the general public," Edwards said, smiling. "I wouldn't draw many conclusions from what you discover from us."

The president of the Bills offense is right to caution us against making any projections from these findings. After all, this is an NFL locker room populated mostly by millionaires. You won't find any Joe Sixpacks or Joe the Plumbers on the 53-man Bills roster.

Really, a fun article worth checking out.

One of the live bloggers picked up a story from the Associated Press about a tiny town in New Hampshire that has long maintained a tradition of being the first in the nation to tally its ballots. Sen. Barack Obama won the day there.

With 115 residents between them, Dixville Notch and Hart's Location get every eligible voter to the polls beginning at midnight on Election Day. Between them, the towns have been enjoying their first-vote status since 1948.

Being first means something to residents of the Granite State, home of the nation's earliest presidential primary and the central focus - however briefly - of the vote-watching nation's attention every four years.

Town Clerk Rick Erwin said Dixville Notch is proud of its tradition, but added, "The most important thing is that we exemplify a 100 percent vote."

They've even got the token quote in this one about this "historic" election.

Another live blogger got up this interesting bit of info:

Susan B. Anthony, portrayed by Rochesterian Barbara Blaisdell, will lead a group of women at 11:30 a.m. today from the Susan B. Anthony House, 17 Madison St., to the site on West Main Street where Anthony and a group of women voted in the 1872 presidential election, according to the Susan B. Anthony House.

Two weeks after the 1872 election, Anthony was arrested for voting. 

Visitors from Nigeria and  Sudan, who are guests of the  state department  and are in the United States to observe the national election process, are expected to attend the event.

We're hoping to get up some great coverage ourselves here at The Batavian today. I know I will be out among the polls, talking with voters, getting the numbers. But that doesn't mean you have to wait for me. Please, feel free and be encouraged to get up your own Election Day story. If you've got a camera, take a picture. If you've got a video camera, make a video. We'll get your story right up to the homepage for everyone to share.

A fire broke out in an apartment above the Pavilion Post Office shortly before midnight last night, according to WBTA's Dan Fischer. A family of three escaped without injury. Fischer reports that 11 fire companies from three counties came out to battle the blaze. "Most of the mail" was saved, but the Post Office suffered some water damage.

(UPDATE): Earlier this morning, one of our readers attempted to anonymously submit photos and a video clip of the Pavilion fire. Those submissions did not come through. If you tried to send those to us, please send me an e-mail so that we can work out what went wrong and get up the information on the site for all of our readers. If you wish, you may remain anonymous.