UPDATE BELOW AT: 6:01 PM
LIVINGSTON COUNTY— According to an email message sent Wednesday from the Steve Sessler campaign, the Geneseo attorney and challenger for the Republican nomination will mount a show-in-force for Thursday night’s Republican Committee meeting, when the Party plans to settle its deadlocked primary election for Livingston County District Attorney.
The email message asks supporters to attend en masse, and it asks Sessler supporters who are also on any County Republican committees to meet in advance for a planning session.
The committee previously endorsed former Assistant D.A. Eric Scheiner by a large majority, and following two weeks of skirmishing over absentee ballots that culminated in court Wednesday, the two are now locked in a tie. In the face of a perfectly divided electorate, the Committee’s potentially contentious tit-breaking meeting will take place in the Board of Supervisors room of the Livingston County Office Building at 7:30 p.m. Thursaday.
UPDATE 6:05 PM
The Sessler camp released the following information in a press release:
Yesterday evening, the Sessler campaign went into the field and ordered a poll. The question was simple:
“If the election for District Attorney were held today, which candidate would you choose over the Democratic challenger…Conservative Steve Sessler (Press 1) or Republican Eric Schiener (Press 2)?”
There were 505 responses (approximately 5%), a healthy poll sample according to industry standards. The results were astounding. Steve Sessler garnered 54.7% of the vote, while Eric Schiener trailed with 45.3%. It should be noted that the question was specifically chosen so as to garner the likely turnout for each of these candidates in a potential three-way General Election race.