Michael Cashman is seen at the Mountain Lake PBS debate in October. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

Democrat Michael Cashman appears to have won the special election for the 115th Assembly seat over Republican Brent Davison, according to unofficial election night totals from the state Board of Elections.

With all districts in Franklin, Clinton and part of Essex counties reporting, Cashman took 51.5% of the election night vote with 19,435 votes and Davison took 47.2% of the vote with 17,821 votes.

Assemblyman Billy Jones, D-Chateaugay Lake, resigned his seat halfway through his term in September.

There’s a 1,614 vote difference between the candidates based on election night totals, which includes mail-in ballots received before Election Day.

In total, 4,502 absentee ballots were issued in the district.

As of Monday evening, 2,905 of these mail-in ballots had been returned to boards of elections — 1,326 by Democrats, 971 by Republicans, 576 by independent or unaffiliated voters, 26 by Conservatives and six by members of the Working Families Party.

There are still 1,597 mail-in ballots left to be received, but that would not be enough to close the gap for Davison.

Davison recently retired as the State Police Troop B Commander.

Voters who dropped off their mail ballot on election day or postmarked it by the end of Nov. 4 can have their ballots counted if received by the boards by Nov. 12.

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Reaction

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The winner of a special election is typically sworn in directly after the results are certified. Cashman is currently the Plattsburgh town supervisor and will need to resign that seat to join the Assembly.

“I am completely humbled to have earned the trust of so many voters,” Cashman said early on Wednesday morning. “I look forward to serving everyone of the 115th Assembly District.”

Cashman said he believes his ability to connect with individuals gave him an edge in the vote.

His goal is to listen and learn to lead, he said. He’s put thousands of miles on his car in the brief campaign season.

Cashman said his first actions as the most junior member of the Assembly would be to set up the infrastructure of the office to serve the district’s constituents.

Because this election is for the rest of Jones’ unexpired term, the Assembly seat will be up for election again next November.

Jones took a job as vice president for Strategic Investment and Workforce Development at Clinton Community College’s Institute for Advanced Manufacturing.

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Local vote breakdown

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A total of 37,737 people in the district voted in the election.

In Essex County, voters in the towns of Keene, North Elba, Jay, Wilmington and St. Armand participated in this election.

Essex County went for Cashman 61.06% to Davison’s 36.37%, or 2,943 to 1,753.

Franklin County went for Davison 51.17% to Cashman’s 48.7%, or 5,432 to 5,170.

Clinton County went for Cashman 51.54% to Davison’s 48.42%, or 11,322 to 10,636.

Harrietstown same-day votes went for Cashman over Davison 1,135 to 442, with Cashman getting 72% of the vote. North Elba went for Cashman over Davison 1,409 to 722.

Cashman won every town in Essex County in the district.

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Sprint race

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For years, Jones was the region’s only state representative in the Democratic party.

Democrats wanted to hold this seat in their party’s control. Republicans saw Jones vacating it as an opportunity to secure the seat back into GOP hands.

The candidates were not selected through primaries like typical elections. Instead, the Clinton, Franklin and Essex county chairs of each party voted on who to pick to run for their parties. This was done through a weighted vote based on how many party members their county contributes to the district. In both major parties, Clinton County carried more than 50% of the vote by itself, meaning the Clinton County chairs held all the cards on who the candidates were.

The campaign season was an abbreviated one — only really lasting two-and-a-half months. So the campaigning was fast and fierce, with tens of thousands of dollars being spent on advertising and lawn signs by both candidates.

Davison and Cashman flooded the market with advertisements, with dozens of paper mailers filling inboxes, video advertisements filling most ad breaks on television or the web, newspaper advertisements lining pages and radio spots packing the airwaves.

The two debated last month.

Davison pitched himself as someone who will stand up to the current one-party Democratic rule of New York state, with a focus on tackling the high cost of living.

Cashman pitched himself as a majority party member who won’t always vote with his party, with a focus on providing better living conditions and safety for residents.

The two actually agreed on several issues — repealing the HALT Act, taking a cautious approach to electrification goals, opposing the Green Light Law, supporting universal affordable housing and supporting the Second Amendment.

They still differentiated themselves by party — Davison, as a Republican, being part of a coalition to fight Democratic-led initiatives that could hurt the North Country, and Cashman, as a Democrat, saying he can shape these initiatives from the inside in ways that benefit the area.

In the debate, Cashman said he’s an “independent thinker,” has worked well with Republicans in his political career and does not wholly agree with his party. He said he wouldn’t be afraid to push back on his party and those that endorse him if he doesn’t think their policies would benefit the North Country.

Still, he said he feels it’s important to have a state representative in the majority party in Albany, to make sure a North Country voice is heard in Albany and that resources from Albany are delivered to the North Country.

Cashman said he’d like to continue working on the Assembly’s Canada Relations Task Force Jones helped start.