Facing a challenge from two opponents with very deep pockets, incumbent State Senator Toby Ann Stavisky scored a decisive, double-digit victory in the State Senate District 16 primary.
Stavisky, who was facing a challenge from Isaac Sasson, a retired professor and cancer researcher, and John Messer, a lawyer and small business owner, received 6,475 votes accounting for 45 percent of the vote, while Sasson and Messer received 34 and 21 percent of the vote, respectively.
“I’m obviously delighted with the results,” Stavisky said on Wednesday morning. “I intended to discuss the issues throughout the entire campaign – the need for jobs, the need for children to receive a good education and the need to clean up Albany. I think we’re well on our way, and the voters spoke last night.”
Messer and Sasson ran campaigns trumpeting the need to reform Albany and labeling Stavisky, who has represented the district for 11 years after taking over for her late husband who represented the district for 17 in the Senate and 17 in the Assembly, as the poster child for what is wrong with the state government.
However, Stavisky, who was the first woman from Queens elected to the State Senate, said that during the campaign she did not respond to any of her opponents’ attacks and stuck to talking about the issues that were important to voters.
“I think that’s what people care about,” said Stavisky, who is the Chair of the Senate’s Higher Education Committee.
While Stavisky acknowledged that Albany certainly needed a makeover, she said that Bronx voters picking Gustavo Rivera over the combative State Senator Pedro Espada Jr. on Tuesday night was a good sign that the state was on the path to reform.
In addition, she has said that she has been “recognized as being one of the leaders of the reform group,” citing non-partisan redistricting as one area she has taken a lead on.
Voters cast more than 14,300 ballots in the State Senate District 16 primary – an increase of more than 6,000 votes from the September 2008 primary that featured Stavisky versus Robert Schwartz.
“I am very grateful for the voters because they’re the ones that send me to Albany,” Stavisky said. “I never took them for granted.”
