Democratic state Senate candidate Michael Russo was endorsed Tuesday by Raymond Seney, who until last month was running for the Republican nomination for the same seat.
Seney, a Nassau town councilman and former supervisor, was defeated in the Republican primary by Roy McDonald, while Russo won the Democratic primary against Brian Premo.
According to a Russo news release, Seney "also switched his enrollment from Republican to Democratic in recent days."
"I am endorsing Mike today because I am confident he will be the senator that will keep money in our district instead of sending our tax dollars to the power base in New York City, which I believe is what his opponent will be inclined to do," Seney said in Russo's release. One of McDonald's campaign themes is protecting the interests of upstate against New York City.
Kris Thompson, McDonald's spokesman, said it's not surprising that Seney endorsed a Democrat, since he has run on the Democratic line in local races.
Thompson suggested that Seney's Democratic leanings are "the reason he lost by the margin he did" in the GOP primary. Seney got 1,347 votes to McDonald's 9,536. On the Democratic side, Russo got 5,899 votes to Premo's 3,017.
But McDonald, an incumbent assemblyman, also has some Democratic support, including Mechanicville Mayor Anthony Sylvester.
The majority-Republican district includes most of Saratoga Springs and eastern Saratoga County and all of Rensselaer County. It was represented by Joseph Bruno, R-Brunswick, until he resigned this summer.
"When I was a Republican and town supervisor, Mike reached across the aisle as the district director for Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand [D-Greenport] when many Republican politicians ignored the needs of my town," Seney said in the Russo release. " He put politics aside and always had an open door for me. It is my opinion that Mike Russo will be the best candidate to represent the voters of Rensselaer and Saratoga counties."
Bruno jump-started McDonald's campaign by endorsing him after resigning as Senate majority leader after 13 1/2 years. That post made Bruno one of the three most powerful people in state government and a powerhouse provider of funding for local projects.
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