Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick says he's running for a ninth and final time. This time, he's being challenged by a Democrat with conservative support and a Conservative Party member.

“I’m the district attorney. I'm not the Republican district attorney or I'm not the Catholic district attorney,” Fitzpatrick said.

For eight terms — more than 30 years — he has been Onondaga County’s district attorney.

“I have to be fair, call it like I see it and do justice,” Fitzpatrick said.

And while the office is designed not to be political, when it comes to campaigning for the seat, it most definitely is.

“Well, it's necessary. I mean, it's not a free ride. You don't get appointed or anointed to be DA,” Fitzpatrick said of politics.

But as Fitzpatrick prepares to run for a ninth term, he said politics are at play.

“Big-time Conservative Party leadership, which is essentially Tom Dadey, orchestrated a scam on the Conservative voters by nominating a lifelong public defender,” Fitzpatrick said.

Not only that, Fitzpatrick said, but also, Chuck Keller is a Democrat. And while Keller said he got the endorsement based on principle...

“I’m a Democrat. You can imagine they asked me a lot of interesting questions. And to be candid, the way I got it was I was honest,” Keller said.

Fitzpatrick believes Dadey, an at-large member of the New York State Conservative Party's executive committee, who wrote a letter to the editor of Syracuse.com, claiming Fitzpatrick abused his office and should retire, orchestrated all of this just to get him out.

We reached out to Dadey, but as of the publishing deadline, he did not comment.

“They almost got away with it, but that's why I admire Christine [Varga]. She's she's doing all she can,” Fitzpatrick said.

Some, including Keller, believe Varga was Fitzpatrick's political shot back. Varga is a conservative. She was also a late entry into the primary for the Conservative Party line, a way to keep Keller off of it. And she easily won Tuesday night’s primary.

“I felt that since I was a registered Conservative, I was the only one that could come forward. It was my duty to come forward and try to protect our life,” Varga said.

“I can't imagine that anybody could believe that she's in it to win it,” Keller said.

Despite the claim made by Keller, who will still be on the Democratic line in November, Fitzpatrick and Varga say they did not plan anything before Varga, a longtime employee of Fitzpatrick's in the DA's office, decided to run.

“Well, Christine is running on principle,” Fitzpatrick said.

“I had to do this. It was based on principle. It really wasn't looking at how the race was going to turn out for any of the candidates,” Varga said.

After her victory Tuesday night, Varga said she fully intends to stay in this race. She say she has a number of events lined up this summer, and also looks forward to debates in the fall.