Democrats Dan Livingston and Dan Norton are running to replace Donna Lupardo in the New York State Assembly. Lupardo is retiring this year after representing the 123rd district for 22 years.
The district includes the city of Binghamton, the village of Endicott and the towns of Vestal and Union.
Norton is a litigation attorney at Hinman, Howard, & Kattell.* Norton is also involved with various community organizations including Habitat for Humanity and the Tri-Cities Opera.
Livingston is a former Binghamton City Council member and has worked in Albany crafting legislation. He also has been involved in other political campaigns, including the one that swept Democrats to the supermajority on the Binghamton City Council.
Both candidates say doing something about issues like rising utility bills, housing costs, and childcare at a state level are top priorities in their campaigns.
Each of them said their lived experiences make them the better candidate.
“I don’t just talk about the affordability crisis like it’s just something happening in the world,” said Dan Livingston. “It’s something that’s happening to me. It has been, you know, for years, I struggled with access to healthcare, and years ago I struggled with access to housing and food. And I understand what people in the community are going through.”
“We were in a situation where we were paying for my law school loans. We were paying for the birth of my two children and we were paying for the cost of pre-school all at the same time and money was extraordinarily tight at that period of time,” said Dan Norton.
Whoever voters choose will face Republican Lynn Parker and Heather Micha, who started her campaign as a Republican but will be on the Independent line in November’s general election.
As of Wednesday only 937 eligible voters had cast ballots in the early voting period,according to Broome County’s Board of Elections. Only registered Democratic Party voters can vote in the primary.
Early voting is happening now and ends on Sunday.
Primary Election Day is Tuesday, June 23.
*Hinman, Howard, & Kattell is a WSKG underwriter.
