It took less than an hour after polls closed Tuesday night for the primary winners to emerge in the race for the 60th State Senate District. While Amber Small and Chris Jacobs both celebrated quick wins against their respective opponents, both were already looking ahead to the general election in November.
It didn't take long for Small and Jacobs to emerge as the winners. Shortly after the first numbers were posted online by the Erie County Board of Elections, both candidates were on their way to landslide wins.
Both candidates looked forward to running a race based on issues. Both are also calling for ethics reform in state government. But Small, who defeated Al Coppola in the Democratic primary, suggested that's where their similarities end.
"People in this community don't want another career politician," Small said. "They want someone who cares about their community. You cannot buy the 60th district. You have to earn the trust of voters. That's what I'm excited to do."
Jacobs, who defeated challenger Kevin Stocker in the Republican primary, looked to his experience as a former school board member.
"I'm founder of an education fund, the Bison Fund," Jacobs said. "Education's always going to be a platform of mine."
He also pointed to his experience as Erie County Clerk, using it as an example of his ability to straighten out a government operation.
"I believe I cleaned up that office in terms of the serious problems that we walked into, in terms of finding three million dollars in uncashed checks and over 100,000 deeds and mortgages that never got returned to people," Jacobs said.
Small says the ethics reforms needed to clean up Albany politics need to be substantial and not, in her words, putting a band aid on a heart attack.
"That's a top priority for me," Small said. "But I don't want to just pass reforms. I want to pass comprehensive, effective and meaningful reforms."
Jacobs, meanwhile, calls for a shift from what he believes is an unfair balance favoring downstate in terms of sharing state tax money. He revisits a long-running, popular belief in Western New York that downstate gets a disproportionate amount to Albany's dollars. Even Governor Cuomo, during his visits to the Buffalo-Niagara area to celebrate developments in his "Buffalo Billion" program, speaks of Albany neglecting Upstate New York for many years.
WBFO asked Jacobs if he'll be ready to provide numbers to back his argument if pressed on the matter during the campaign.
"Absolutely. I'm prepared to talk about that," he said. "I'm talking about the dollars that really matter, the dollars that are going to move the needle in terms of moving this area forward. Not poverty maintenance, but empowerment of this region's move forward economically."
The 60th District became available when the seat's current holder, Marc Panepinto, announced earlier this year he would not seek reelection.
