Politics & Government

Cardinale, Van Glad, Williams Win Primary, Board of Elections Confirms

Board confirms numbers previously released by Cardinale camp

The Suffolk County Board of Elections has confirmed unofficial results released by Phil Cardinale's campaign late Wednesday afternoon which showed Cardinale and his two running mates had swept the election.

Cardinale recieved 500 of the 623 votes cast for town supervisor, pulling in over 80 percent of the vote. His opponent, Greg Fischer, managed less that 20 percent. Matthew Van Glad and Marlando Williams both advanced and recieved 374 and 369 votes, respectively. Fischer's running mate on the ballot, Ruth Pollack, was given 313 votes.

Fischer and Pollack will remain on the ballot for the general election under the

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Cardinale said he was "elated" by the results of the election, and said he appreciated that the voter's choices reflected his beliefs.

"I knew Greg Fischer had no support within the committee itself," Cardinale said. "But what was particularly pleasing about the result was that the opinion of the Democratic Committee, about 44 committee people, was confirmed by the vote of all the Democrats eligible to vote in town."

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He added that Fischer and Pollack "worked hard" during the primary, though he believes some of Pollack's success was due to the layout of the ballot, which may have confused some voters into thinking Pollack was running with Cardinale and not Fischer.

"If you look at the ballot for the primary, it's different in a very important way from the ballot for the general election," Cardinale said. "Next to Fischer's name, there was Marlando Williams and Matt Van Glad, and next to my name was Ruth Pollack. I know at least three people approached me in Jamesport and congratulated me and my running mate Ruth Pollack."

Cardinale said he's now shifting gears to focus on driving up voter participation, creating signs and deciding on marketing ideas with his two running mates for the general election.

Fischer said in an interview Wednesday evening that his campaign "blew it at the last minute" after two groups he had spoken to did not turn out to assist him in the election.

"I didn't even try to get my vote out at all," Fischer said. "I worked to get Ruth's vote out."

At times sounding resigned to defeat, at others confident in victory, Fischer said he "wasn't fooling [himself]" into thinking he had the resources for a general election run, but at the same time stated, "I plan on winning this in November."

Fischer blamed campaign animosity from his opponents for his poor showing, saying they sabotaged his campaign with lies.

"Believe it or not, Karl Rove tactics work. I took the high road, I did the right thing. I really don't want to go down to that," Fischer said. "I've done my civic duty. I did what I could to prevent economic devastation."


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