The race for Saratoga County District Attorney is gearing up, and incumbent Karen Heggen has a challenger in her former colleague James Davis. Davis is on leave from his job in the New York State Inspector General’s office in order to run. He had worked with Heggen for a short time about seven years ago when she first won the DA position.
The two have been meeting with local Republican committees seeking the endorsement of the party. The advantage to having the endorsement, leadership says, is that the party goes out and works to help their endorsed candidate gain the signatures needed under state law to run.
The losing candidate can still pick up signatures, and might be able to force a primary.
Thus far, Davis has won endorsements from the towns of Wilton, Saratoga, Providence, Charlton, Ballston, Hadley and Day. Heggen has won the City of Saratoga Springs, as well as the towns of Milton, Greenfield, Moreau, Northumberland and Malta.
The number of towns is not nearly as important as the population of the locality and the number of registered Republicans therein. A byzantine metric determines exactly how many votes each Republican committee member has when casting votes, but both Davis and Heggen agree that Heggen is in the weighted-vote lead.
Clifton Park, the largest municipality in the county, has not yet endorsed a candidate.
Halfmoon and Mechanicville will be voting this evening, Davis told FoothillsBusinessDaily.com.
The final vote during a full meeting of the county party has not yet been set.
Heggen is running on a platform she says highlights her successes in office. She cites her conviction rate of 95% and the state statistics that show Saratoga County is the safest county in the Capital Region.
"I am pleased to be ahead. And things are going to continue to move forward in a positive vein for my reelection,” Heggen said.
She has been painting Davis, who says he is a lifelong Republican, as a Democrat, or a Republican with Democratic leanings, given that he has worked in the IG’s office during the administrations of both Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Kathy Hochul, both Democrats. According to the Saratoga County Board of Elections, he is a registered Republican.
Davis has countered that he “felt compelled” to run after speaking to people working under Heggen who he says are unhappy with her leadership.
About 70%, or 17, Assistant District Attorneys have left since she took office.
Under other District Attorneys, "They stayed forever," Davis said, adding, "You want to keep lifelong prosecutors because it's a calling." The cost to find and train an assistant district attorney is expensive, he added.
He also questioned her handling of the Darryl Mount Jr. case when it first occurred in 2013. Mount was the biracial man who fell into a coma after a late-night chase with police. He later died of the wounds he suffered. Police said he fell from scaffolding, others including his family, have questioned that.
Heggen was the top Assistant DA at the time.
"There should have been a separate investigation separate and apart from any investigation conducted by the police,” he said, adding that it could have happened “any time during these last years."
Heggen countered that the ADAs who have left may have done so as part of a transition while four retired. She also listed some who got better jobs, got married and moved out of the area, or have been appointed to other positions in state or federal government.
She also said that though she has been in the District Attorney's office, part- or full-time since 1993, she was not assigned to the Darryl Mount Jr. case at the time.
"I'm proud of the record of the men and women in the office," she said more than once in an interview.
The general election is this November. The primary, if there is one, is set for June 28.