<!--Rick Pfeiffer--><table width="234" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" background="http://static.cnhi.zope.net/flashpromo/niagaragazette/images/byline_234x60.jpg" height="60"><tr><td><div align="center"><font size="3" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">By Rick Pfeiffer</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br /></font><font size="1" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="mailto:rick.pfeiffer@niagara-gazette.com">rick.pfeiffer@niagara-gazette.com</a></font></div></td></tr></table>
At 9:27 p.m. Tuesday, Lewiston Town Supervisor Fred Newlin turned to one of his supporters and said simply, “I’m not going to win.”
As the vote totals from across the town continued to come in, Newlin supporters looked at the white board where the numbers were being recorded and began to shake their heads.
“It’s over,” one of them said.
Newlin, staring at the board which showed him losing in virtually every town and village election district, including the one where he lives and where he grew up, said sadly, “It’s everywhere. It’s everywhere.”
“There was very low voter turnout,” the three term incumbent Democrat said. “There was very negative campaigning and we heavily outspent.”
When the final numbers were tallied, Newlin had been swept from office by Town Highway Superintendent Steve Reiter. With 100 percent of the districts reporting, Reiter the endorsed Republican, Conservative and Working Families candidate had 2,053, or 54.7 percent of the votes to 1,457 or 38.8 percent for Newlin, the Democratic and Lewiston’s Choice parties standard bearer.
Independent party candidate Kathryn Mazierski, who had challenged Newlin in the Democratic primary, picked up 243 votes, or 6.4 percent of the tally.
“It’s very emotional,” Reiter said of his resounding victory. “I’m always in awe when people get out of their warm homes and support me in a manner like they demonstrated tonight.”
Reiter said he was ready to begin working with the Town Council on projects including services for seniors, recreational opportunities and other initiatives. The election results for supervisor and town council has flipped the council from a 3-2 Democrat control to a 4-1 GOP majority.
“Lewiston won’t be the best kept secret in Western New York,” Reiter said, “just the best place in Western New York.”
Newlin expressed disappointment at being turned away by the voters.
“By any measure, Lewiston is better off then we were before (his first election),” Newlin said. “Maybe I should have communicated that better.”
He said a recent decrease in the National Grid discount rate for Lewiston residents probably hurt his bid.
“It’s disappointing. I think we accomplished a lot in the last six years,” Newlin said. “But at the end of the day you have to respect the decision of the voters. I’m hoping over time they’ll look back and appreciate what we did.”
