Albany County will have a new district attorney in January for the first time in 20 years.
Attorney Lee Kindlon, a Democrat, declared victory Tuesday over Republican Ralph Ambrosio and incumbent Albany County District Attorney David Soares, who Kindlon defeated in a primary in June and ran a write-in campaign.
The vote tally was 65% for Kindlon; 3% for Soares' write-in candidacy; and 35% for Ambrosio, according to preliminary totals from the Albany County Board of Elections.
Kindlon declared victory Tuesday night at an Albany County Democratic Committee watch party in the Italian American Community Center in Albany.
“I’m excited, relieved," he said. "It’s been a very long campaign. We got in late. But I think we worked twice as hard as anyone else to get our message out to voters. To have it all pay off with a resounding victory tonight, it’s great."
He said he would be putting together a transition team over the next several weeks to hit the ground running in January.
“The men and women who work in that office now have been doing a really good job, and I think they just lack leadership and some cohesion that I’m going to be able to bring to the table for their benefit," Kindlon said.
Kindlon will serve a four-year term as county district attorney.
An Albany attorney and combat veteran like his father, Kindlon seized on growing voter discontent for Soares, who Kindlon criticized for giving himself a more than $22,000 bonus with grant money meant for staff retention. Soares ended up returning the money.
A defense attorney, Kindlon also tried to tie the issue of crime to Soares, calling it the DA's legacy.
In his last years in office, Soares grew into an outspoken critic of his party's criminal justice reforms and blamed them for enabling violent crime. He had promised to remain a vocal critic of those laws.
Soares conceded the race Tuesday night. He said listening to the will of the people is what democracy is all about.
Soares said he was looking forward to a having a successful transition. He said there were no sour grapes.
“The doors close on one event of your life and they open others, so were looking forward to the future,” Soares said.
Kindlon, a longtime defense attorney, said changes to state law were not perfect, but were necessary steps forward that can be built upon.
A retired New York state trooper, Ambrosio brought a solid resume to the campaign, having also worked as a former assistant district attorney in Greene and Columbia counties and a former assistant attorney general, but he was unable to gain traction with voters in the blue county.
He strongly opposed recent criminal justice reforms, and called for reorganize the DA’s office into early evaluation central booking to help prosecutors meet deadline on turning over discovery.
Ambrosio had not conceded as of late Tuesday.
Kindlon will be sworn in as district attorney in January.