SOARES WINS ALBANY DA RACE

ALBANY -- Political newcomer David Soares capped his quest to become
district attorney with victory Tuesday night.

Soares fended off GOP challenger Roger Cusick, a Loudonville lawyer
who got a late boost when incumbent Paul Clyne dropped out of the race
on Friday and endorsed the Republican in a last-ditch effort to keep
Soares from winning.

But the maneuver was not enough, as Soares was lifted on a tide of
Democratic voters who also strongly backed John Kerry for President.
With 71 percent of the voting districts tallied, Soares received
52,853 votes, 54 percent, on the Democratic and Working Families party
lines, while Cusick had 42,558, 43 percent, on the GOP and
Conservative party lines.

Despite dropping out and asking his supporters to vote for the
54-year-old Cusick, Clyne had 3,242 votes, 3 percent, on the
Independence Party line.

In September, Soares, 35, shocked Clyne and the Democratic Party
establishment when he routed Clyne by more than 5,000 votes in the
primary.

On Tuesday, before a packed ballroom at the Crowne Plaza hotel, Soares
declared victory around 10:30 p.m. He credited a new coalition within
the Democratic Party, including, "young and old, black and white, and
all the shades in between, straight and gay, women, labor and
environmentalists."

Soares said his victory would strengthen the Democratic Party, rather
than weaken it, because it brings in "people who have felt they didn't
have a voice."

Standing by Soares' side for most of the evening was fired police
Commander Christian D'Alessandro, who ran afoul of the department's
leadership over his allegations of overtime abuse and the city's
counterclaim that he was behind a disrespectful flier aimed at a
fellow officer.

When asked if he intends to hire D'Alessandro as an investigator,
Soares said, "He will be my right hand."

He told supporters that "while D'Alessandro looks good in a suit,
that's not the uniform I want him to be wearing."

Several prominent Democrats who backed Soares said the new alliance
with the Working Families Party will be a major force in next year's
citywide elections when the mayor, 15-member Common Council and its
president are up for election.

"This has shown a coalition can move mountains," said Common Council
President Helen Desfosses. "There will be a search for candidates for
every seat, starting tomorrow."

The first candidate to win with solely Working Families Party support
echoed Desfosses' assessment.

"The Working Families Party taught us how to build a coalition and how
to win in a professional manor," said County Legislator Lucille
McKnight from the South End, who this spring won a special election
after losing a Democratic primary to retain her seat.

Democrats enjoy a substantial enrollment edge in the county
overRepublicans, 86,700 to 45,000. About 51,200 voters are not enrolled in
a party.

The district attorney's race became one of the most-watched campaigns
in the region after Soares, a 34-year-old African-born immigrant and
political unknown who had been an assistant district attorney under
Clyne for four years, stunned his former bosse and the Democratic
Party establishment by beating the incumbent in the September primary.

Clyne, who has worked in the district attorney's office for 20 years,
initially stayed in the race on the Independence Party line, even
though all prominent Democratic leaders save one -- Mayor Jerry
Jennings -- embraced Soares after his win and tried to convince Clyne
to get behind him.

The race turned hard-fought in the final weeks, with both Clyne and
Cusick criticizing Soares' desire to repeal the Rockefeller Drug Laws,
saying the plan was more lenient than any law enforcement bodies want
and was just a mask for drug legalization. Clyne went so far as to say
that Soares would allow drug dealers to roam the streets and prey on
children.

Thomas Monjeau, a county legislator from Albany, said Clyne's
last-minute endorsement of the Republican was "so incredibly sour
grapes that it could have hurt Cusick." Monjeau also said Soares'
victory shows that Jennings "has no coattails." Monjeau, himself,
bested a candidated backed by the mayor, Joseph McCaffrey, in a 1999
legislative primary.

Soares, who based much of his primary campaign on repeal of those
laws, promised to be tough on dealers, and accused Clyne and Cusick of
scare tactics and misleading advertisements.

On Tuesday night, Soares told supporters: "The voters have demanded
that the Rockefeller drug laws be reformed. Every district attorney in
the state clinging to these archaic laws will hear today's results.
The Legislature must act and the recalcitrant DA's must get out of the
way -- or else go the way of the Albany County incumbent."

Clyne, with the help of prominent GOP lobbyist James
Featherstonehaugh, successfully sued over the Working Families Party's
spending $121,000 on Soares' behalf during the Democratic primary. A
state Supreme Court judge ruled that the Working Families group
violated state election law, but did not find any wrongdoing by Soares.