VESTAL, NY (WSKG) - After claiming victory in the Republican primary for Broome County District Attorney this month, Paul Battisti said he hadn't heard from his opponent, Mike Korchak.
Now, we know why.
Korchak announced today he's staying in the race and will run on the Libertarian Party line.
The current chief assistant district attorney lost to Battisti by fewer than 200 votes. It was so close, the race was decided by absentee ballots.
“Those were basically 45-hundred people that said 'we’re not content with the Republican establishment. We want someone else. We want someone else as our candidate'," he said.
"And I’ve heard from many of those people that encouraged me to go forward,” Korchak said.
He isn't happy with how that primary process went and claims the Broome Republican party heads don’t want him to run for office.
“I don’t feel that I left the Republican party. The Republican party left me," he said. "I believed at the time that I contacted the party chair that I was the most qualified candidate for the job. And to be told that I wouldn’t even be considered, wouldn’t even get an interview and being discouraged from running, that’s not the American way.”
Broome County Republican Chair Bijoy Datta said he never discouraged Korchak or any other candidate from running for office. "I'm confident that the voters in November will elect Paul Battisti, just as the voters in last month's primary election selected him," he said.
Along with Battisti, Korchak will face Democrat Debra Gelson in that election.