Congressional candidate Richard Hanna Thursday said there’s a possibility he would run again in 2010 for the 24th Congressional District seat.

Hanna, a Republican from Cooperstown who hasn’t conceded this year’s race, said he knows the standard answer would be to say he’s not thinking about that right now, but his frank answer is that he’s not ruling it out.

“It’s an option. I’m going to leave it on the table,” Hanna said. “A lot of what I decide is what I see happening in the community in the next two years.”

U.S. Rep. Michael Arcuri, D-Utica, leads Hanna 118,640 to 112,249 with absentee ballots yet to be counted, according to Board of Elections officials in all 11 counties in the congressional district.

Arcuri declared victory Wednesday. His campaign manager, Jordan Karp, did not return calls Wednesday or Thursday.

There were 21,026 absentee ballots sent out in the district, and 17,383 were received through Election Day, according to Board of Elections officials throughout the district.

Absentee ballots had to be postmarked by Monday and must be received within one week.

Officials in most counties had said they will begin counting Wednesday and that it will take a few days after that to finalize the results. To win, Hanna would have to receive votes from almost 70 percent of the absentee ballots that were sent out.

There is room for the final results to change because of the absentee ballots, paper ballots from malfunctioning voting machines and the official counting of the original votes, Hanna said.

“I admit the likelihood might not be there, but it’s happened many times in the past,” he said.
Hanna said he was proud of the campaign he and his supporters ran. He said he wouldn’t change anything about it, and believes they did it for the right reasons.

“We did something nobody thought we could do,” he said. “This was one of the closest races in the United States. I was quite pleased.”

Hanna said he believes he had a successful campaign because of his supporters, his business background, his performance during the debates, his advertisements about Arcuri’s record and his effort to be sincere.

If Hanna’s future isn’t as a congressman, his time will be spent with his wife, Kim, and 1½-year-old son, Emerson, he said.

“I worry about the future of this community, but I’m not worried about my future,” Hanna said. “I’ve got a job hanging out with Emerson.”

Hanna encouraged more local residents to run for office because he showed that it can be done.

“People want change,” he said. “They need to grasp it.”

Source: UticaOD