Kortright defeats Winn to hold DA post
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FORT EDWARD -- Washington County District Attorney Kevin Kortright appeared headed for re-election to a second term late Tuesday with a 479-vote lead over his former boss, Robert Winn.
Absentee ballots will come into play, but Kortright seemed poised to overcome his loss in the Republican primary to win with just a minor party ballot line. He led 5,640 to 5,161 in unofficial results posted late Tuesday.
Winn conceded defeat late Tuesday, saying it was all but mathematically impossible to make up the gap through the absentee ballots.
Kortright, of Greenwich, said he was "relieved" and called the hard-fought win "very nice."
"It's been a long couple of months, and I'm glad it worked out," he said.
Winn said he was disappointed because he felt a change was needed in the district attorney's office.
"You can't get into this and not be prepared to lose," he said. "I knew this was a possibility and I'm moving on."
He said he plans to continue his private law practice.
Kortright ran on the Independence Party line, while Winn had the Republican and Conservative lines.
County officials said 904 absentee ballots have been mailed out, which meant that Winn would have to garner more than 70 percent of the absentees to overcome Kortright's lead if they were all returned. Those ballots will be counted next week.
Kortright said he was impressed with the turnout during an election year with no statewide or congressional contests in the region.
"It seems to be a big turnout," he said. "Greenwich turned out big-time, over 50 percent."
Tuesday's voting capped a campaign that became vicious over the last few weeks, with both sides accusing the other of dirty tactics.
It was a far cry from the professional, congenial relationship the two enjoyed during Kortright's 16 years as an assistant district attorney during Winn's tenure. Winn chose not to run for re-election in 2005, but chose to attempt a comeback because he believed Kortright was not doing a good job.
Kortright sent out 22,000 fliers that included an e-mail Winn sent to him that he believes showed Winn wanted to return to the district attorney's office only to fatten his pension. He also distributed another memo from 1997 to area police in which Winn asked Granville Police to "lay low" around the restaurant/bar where his election party was being held that year.
Winn, a Granville resident, accused Kortright of bumbling cases and deceiving the public about his record as it relates to the dismissal of several felony cases.
Kortright ran a quiet campaign before the Sept. 15 primary, and Winn topped him by 165 votes with a message that included heavy criticism of Kortright's office's performance.
At least $60,000 will likely have been spent on the race when all is said and done.
Winn had spent nearly $44,000 as of the last campaign filing form submitted to the state Board of Elections, while Kortright had spent more than $9,000.
The most recent report, the 11-day pre-election report, does not include advertising blitzes done by both candidates in recent days, which has included fliers mailed to voters' homes, newspaper ads and - at least in Winn's campaign - radio ads.
Kortright did not list his expenses in the 11-day report or the one before that, which was to be filed 32 days before the general election.
In all, his campaign finance forms show he loaned his campaign $15,457, and he raised $10,150 from contributors.
Winn's forms show he loaned $44,176 to his campaign as of the 11-day report, and had not taken any campaign contributions.
Posted in Local on Tuesday, November 3, 2009 10:35 pm Updated: 10:45 pm. | Tags: Winn, Kortright, District Attorney,
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