Stanley considers a recount

Assemblyman Craig Stanley is not ready to admit defeat.

Stanley, the six-term Essex County Democrat who lost yesterday’s primary to Cory Booker-backed Cleopatra Tucker by just 110 votes, is mulling the possibility of a recount.

“I have not conceded yet," said Stanley.  "I believe in my heart that there is still victory here, and we’re going to pursue all of all legal avenues available.”

If Stanley does decide to go through with the recount, it won’t be his first. When he ran for Mayor of Irvington in 2002, the election was so close that it triggered an automatic recount. He wound up losing that election by just 78 votes.

“If anyone knows Craig Stanley, they know that he’s an optimist,” said fellow Assemblyman William Payne, who's Stanley's uncle and political ally.  He said that he was disappointed but not entirely surprised that Stanley’s opponents won, given their cash advantage.

Payne, who did not run for re-election to the Assembly, but has filed as an Independent candidate for State Senate in the neighboring 29th district, blamed the loss on Booker.

“The accounts that came in are the same folks who funded Mayor Booker’s campaign…. and there’s always a question of why people in California, Arizona will be interested in funding a local race like that. That’s a question that has to be explored,” said Payne.

Stanley was taken aback by his opponent's showing.   

"To be quite honest, I am really shocked with the outcome of the election. I think it’s probably more the result of the perfect storm," said Stanley, who said he had already reached out to a lawyer about the recount.  “We’re going to do everything we can do to come out with the results that we think is more reflective of what we think is the peoples’ will.”

But Tucker’s campaign did not fret at the possibility of the recount. Campaign spokesman Phil Alagia noted that all of the machines in the district are electronic, leaving little room for human error in the vote tallying process.

Alagia said that an unknown number of provisional ballots remain uncounted, but he doesn’t think that those will make a difference.

“The numbers will not change in a recount with these new machines. The numbers and the numbers,” said Alagia. “Even though it doesn’t sound like it, 110 is big number.”