Written November 4th, 2009
There wasn't much grand about the Grand Old Party's Election Night gathering at the OnCenter Tuesday night. A couple dozen Republicans found themselves in a ballroom with plenty of empty seats and a couple of TV sets to watch the returns on. “I’ve been to election nights where there were big screens and lots of people," said Linda Dudzinski , wife of Cicero Town Supervisor Chet Dudzinski, who was running for re-election. "It’s usually a much bigger event.”
“This year is different,” Jim Corl Sr., the GOP Town Chair in Cicero, said, "We had to physically call in a kid with a laptop [to get election results.] It’s embarrassing.”
State Senator John DeFrancisco, R-Syracuse, said the low attendance was because there were “about six [other] parties going on,” and the lack of a presidential election made people less interested in attending. He left out the fact one of those other parties held elsewhere was for Steve Kimatian, the Republican candidate for Syracuse mayor who was given little chance of winning.
The polls closed at nine and returns started coming in, but a crowd never materialized. Gathered around a table in a corner of the ballroom, Matt Rayo and his family celebrated his election to the Syracuse Common Council. Republicans gained another seat on the Onondaga County Legislature as Chairman William Meyer hung on in a race so close he wouldn’t talk to reporters until it was over. It was more relief than celebration.
Chet Dudzinski didn't need to see the results on a big screen. He'd been clobbered.
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