Michael Gentile wins NY Assembly seat held by Buttenschon
Michael Gentile thanked his voters who propelled him to victory in the race to succeed Marianne Buttenschon in New York's 119th Assembly District. Gentile, who ran on the Republican and Conservative party lines will replace Buttenschon, a Democrat, on Jan. 3. "I would just like to say thank you to everyone that took part in this journey and campaign," said Gentile. "I had an amazing team backing me and it feels good that this hard work paid off." The district includes about 135,000 residents in part of Oneida County. Gentile, a lifelong resident of Utica, defeated Jon Lipe, who was running on the Democratic, Working Families and Mohawk Valley 1st parties, by getting 18,474 votes − about 53% of the vote. In a statement posted to his campaign Facebook page shortly after 11 a.m. Wednesday, Lipe said he had called Gentile earlier that morning to congratulate him and "wish him all the best in office." "While the results for our race aren’t what we hoped for, I am touched by the support my family and I received all throughout the campaign," Lipe's statement expressed. "Thank you to everyone I met and reconnected with at local events, at the doors, at
