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By NICHOLAS L. DEAN OBSERVER Mayville Bureau MAYVILLE — Control of the Chautauqua County Legislature will likely come down to the District 7 race, where the Democratic incumbent has 527 votes to his Republican challenger’s 532. Absentee ballots, which are still being received by the Board of Elections, will decide whether Leon Beightol returns to his seat or is ousted by Republican Robert Stewart. Though 13 Republicans were elected Tuesday, the party can only count on 12 of their votes when it comes to control of the legislature in 2010. Similarly, Legislature Chairman Keith Ahlstrom, D-Dunkirk, believes his party has 12 of the necessary 13 votes to maintain control — with support coming from Republican Bob Duff and Independence Party member Scot Stutzman. Additionally, Ahlstrom is confident that Democratic incumbent Vickye James will win the still close race against Republican Will Prieto in District 11. That makes 12 Republicans to nine Democrats, an expected Democrat and two Democratic-leaning legislators. If Stewart is determined the winner in District 7, the Republicans will automatically hold a majority of the legislature’s 25 seats. Without Stewart, the Republicans need either Duff or Stutzman in order to take control of the legislature come Jan. 1. All signs point to Duff and Stutzman supporting a Democratic majority. However, as of Thursday, neither were willing to commit to who they will support in 2010. “I pride myself as being a legislator of the people,” Duff said. “I represent the people of my district and the good people of Chautauqua County, and I decline any comment in regards to that question.” Though a registered member of the Republican party, Duff ran for re-election this year on the Democratic ticket. He received a total of 1,198 votes in District 3, which covers portions of the town of Dunkirk, portions of the city of Dunkirk and the town of Sheridan. Of those votes, 605 were cast on the Democratic Party line, 452 were cast on the Republican Party line and 141 were cast on the Conservative Party line. Going strictly by the individual party tallies, it appears the voters of District 13 elected the Democratic Duff. Or, if you combine the Republican and Conservative vote totals, Duff has almost bipartisan support from both sides of the aisle. In addition to declining comment, Duff said he believes “a lot of legislators are afraid to vote their conscience” and suggested that it is too early for anybody to be talking about party majority. Democrats have controlled the County Legislature since 1997, winning 13 seats that year on the coattails of former County Executive Mark Thomas — a Democrat from Fredonia who ousted the Republican incumbent. Before that, Republicans maintained a comfortable 14-11 margin. In the years since, the closest the GOP has come to retaking majority control was in 1999, when Democrat Robert Anderson of Frewsburg ousted the incumbent Republican legislator, Kenneth Dahlgren, by only three votes. If a handful of disputed votes had not been thrown out by the courts, Dahlgren would have won, giving majority control over the legislature back to the Republicans. AN INDEPENDENT MIND When discussing their numbers in the County Legislature, Democrats tend to include Stutzman in their ranks. They also tend to highlight the fact that the Jamestown legislator has caucused with them in the past. Though true, Stutzman pointed out Thursday that he has not caucused with the Democrats at all in the current two-year term. Additionally, Stutzman said that, at this point, he has no plans on caucusing with either the Democrats or the Republicans in 2010. “I really want to see how it unfolds,” Sutzman said. “As an Independent, I’m going to be interested to see if (legislators) want to be caucusing with me. A lot of the wins in the elections had Independence Party endorsements. If they want to caucus with me, they technically can because they have our endorsement.” Reiterating that he is not a Democrat, Stutzman said he plans to maintain neutrality in 2010. “I’m looking to see who is going to call me and say, ‘Let’s work together. Let’s deal with the issues at face value,’” Stutzman said. “I’m an Independence Party member and at this point, I’m not picking any side — and for that matter, I won’t be picking any side. Now that we’re in a position where there’s an inequal balance, it’s interesting how I’m getting contacted from people. I don’t like that about politics. I want people to deal with the issues and not worry about the balance of the legislature. That’s an issue to me, that we seemed to be so darned concerned with the balance of the legislature versus the issues at face value.” Looking back on the last two years, Stutzman said the term served as an “eye-opener as to how politics works.” Additionally, he said the experience left him with a bad taste in his mouth. “I’m not wholeheartedly convinced that even this current budget vote had anything to do with taxpayers as much as it had to do with making the candidates on either side look as good as they can in light of an election,” Stutzman said. “I take issues with those types of things.” Despite his interest in remaining neutral, Stutzman was backed by the Democrats in Tuesday’s election. Of the 417 votes he received in District 14, a total of 287 were cast on the Democratic Party’s line while 130 were cast on the Independence Party’s line. “I’m going to represent the people in the county,” Stutzman said. “I’m not worried about the political party affiliations. This current race, even though I didn’t have a candidate running against me, I went out and asked for endorsements from all sides. If the Republicans or the Conservatives or the Working Families Party want to endorse me, I don’t mind. I am an Independence Party member and if I could win an election as a blank rather than an Independent, I would. I don’t want to be affiliated with a party. I want to be affiliated with the issues.” In terms of the January vote to elect a legislature chairman, Stutzman said he is not concerned about party as much as he is electing someone knowledgeable to the position — someone like current Legislature Chairman Keith Ahlstrom. “I believe this honestly — Keith Ahlstrom has a lot of knowledge,” Stutzman said. “He’s a very bright man and he’s been legislature chairman for a lot of years. I think he has offered the chairman seat a lot. I don’t care if he’s a Republican, a Democrat or an Independent; I’m comfortable with him as the chairman of the legislature. I want to see someone who is incredibly knowledgeable and has leadership skills be voted in as chairman, so I look forward to seeing who the Republicans are going to put forward. Do they have those skills? Or is it just going to be mostly about putting somebody from the party in front of everybody?” Former Chautauqua County reporter Patrick Fanelli contributed to this story.

 

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