In District 30, which covers Westmere, Democrat Dustin Reidy handily beat Peter Golden, an unaffiliated voter who ran on the Republican and Conservative lines. Reidy, who calls himself a “progressive Democrat,” also ran on the Working Families Party line.

Reidy had 922 votes, or 63 percent, to Golden’s 531, or 36 percent, according to the Albany County Board of Elections. For the last 10 years, Reidy has worked on issue advocacy and has helped manage and run voter outreach and election campaigns. 

Golden, a novelist and historian, told The Enterprise Wednesday morning that he believes running for office is a form of community service because it is important for people to talk about the issues and to have choices.

“Life would be very interesting if everyone had to run at least once,” Golden said. “There’d be a lot more people coming out [to vote], for one thing.” 

District 30 had been represented by Democrat Bryan Clenahan from 2007 until last year, when he became a Guilderland town justice, following the arrest and resignation of former town justice Richard Sherwood. 

Democrat Charles D. Cahill Jr. was appointed to fill Clenahan’s seat but did not run to keep the seat. 

In June’s Democratic primary, Dustin Reidy decisively won against Steven Wickham, who had been the candidate selected by the Guilderland Democratic Party for District 30. 

Mickey Cleary 

District 32 was decided in a landslide, with three-fourths of the votes going to Mickey Cleary, whose opponent had announced more than a month ago that he was suspending his campaign but still received about a quarter of the vote.. 

At the Orchard Tavern West in Star Plaza, after the unofficial results had been tallied, Cleary told The Enterprise that he looked forward to working in the legislature to serve the county, the town, and his district. 

Cleary, who was running on the Democratic and Independence party lines, received a total of 1,049 votes, or 77 percent. Incumbent Democrat Paul Miller, whose name appeared on teh Working Families Party line, received 308 votes, or 23 percent, despite announcing in September that he was ending his campaign. 

Miller had lost to Cleary by two votes in a Democratic Party primary in June. Cleary had gone into a session of counting absentee ballots 22 vptes ajead amd saw that lead shrink over the hour-and-a-half of counting to just two votes. The final tally in the primary was 299 for Miller and 301 for Cleary. 

Cleary works in operations in the Unified Court System and has served on Guilderland’s planning board for 20 years. He told The Enterprise earlier he would step down from the planning board when elected.