You can now officially call him Sen. Mike Martucci. The former president of the New York School Bus Contractors Association was named the winner of the hotly contested 42nd district state senate race after three weeks of counting mail-in votes.
Democrat incumbent Sen. Jen Metzger conceded on Tuesday via Twitter. She claimed that she lost by less than one percentage point. On Nov. 4 with all 263 precincts reporting, Martucci led by over 10,500 votes, the Daily Freeman reported at the time, but there were still about 25,000 absentee ballots to count. Martucci’s campaign called Metzger’s chances of winning a “mathematical impossibility” because it would have required her to win all mailed third-party and non-affiliated votes by a 3-to-1 margin.
Martucci’s campaign said the former school bus driver and owner of contractor Quality Bus Service, “overcame a significant Democrat enrollment advantage, as well as being drastically outspent by almost three to one ….”
“I am honored and humbled by the support and trust given to me by the voters of the district,” Martucci said in a statement. “We built a multi-party coalition of families and community advocates, farmers and law enforcement, laborers and business owners, who recognized that Albany must change its practices and priorities to better meet the needs of New Yorkers during these most challenging times.”
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He added that the state is made up of more than simply New York City, “and I plan on making sure Albany is made aware of it.” The 42nd district represents Sullivan County and parts of Orange, Ulster, and Delaware counties that are located northwest of New York City.
Martucci, who was endorsed by former Gov. George Pataki in October, ran on a “Family First” platform that opposed what the campaign referred to as plans to eliminate bail amounts, implement single-payer healthcare, and raise taxes on the middle class. Martucci said a bill Metzger introduced and that passed last year to expand wage, hour and labor protections for farmworkers has resulted in “devastating impacts” on the state’s agricultural industry, the Times Herald-Record also reported in August.
