HILLTOWNS — Physical therapist and Delhi Village Board Member Janet Tweed holds a lead of slightly less than 100 votes over grassroots activist Mary Finneran in the 102nd Assembly District Democratic Primary, according to the New York State Board of Elections unofficial results. 

The 102nd Assembly District comprises all of Greene and Schoharie counties, along with parts of Albany, Otsego, and Delaware counties, and is primarily rural. In Albany County, it includes the towns of Coeymans, Berne, Knox, Rensselaerville, and Westerlo.

While Finneran garnered twice as many Albany County votes as Tweed, so far Tweed has received 1,779 votes across the district, or 49.5 percent, while Finneran has received 1,696, or 47.2 percent. The number of blank ballots alone — 95 — is greater than the 85 votes that separate the two candidates. 

If her lead holds through the certification process, Tweed will face Republican incumbent Chris Tague, who was first elected to that position in 2018, and has successfully fended off two Democratic challengers in the red district since, getting roughly 65 percent of the vote each time.

Tweed told The Enterprise in a campaign interview last month that she intends to bring her experience in getting things down at the local level to the state office, and that she looks forward to the greater impact she could have as an assemblywoman. 

With a background in local government, she said that she understands “the persistence of seeing an idea become legislation, become a program or project that succeeds and is sustainable.”

Her primary focus, she said, would be making health care affordable and accessible. 

As a physical therapist, she has worked primarily in hospitals but has also worked with patients at home, and has seen “firsthand how important adequate health care is — being able to get to appointments or have help come to your home — and how it can be the difference between a patient never walking again and a patient being able to work hard with me and get to walk their granddaughter down the aisle for her wedding.”

Tweed also hopes to protect the region’s natural resources, like soil and water.