With challenges withdrawn in the race for the 100th state Assembly District seat, Democratic challenger Frank Skartados has unseated incumbent Republican Thomas Kirwan.

Ulster County election officials on Monday said both sides have withdrawn objections to contested ballots and the 912-vote lead by Skartados over Kirwan could not be erased by the several hundred votes remaining to be counted.

Combined counts from Ulster, Dutchess, and Orange counties had Skartados with a 22,490-21,578 lead over Kirwan.

During a telephone interview, Kirwan, 75, said the results were not surprising given the national fervor that saw Democrats take control of the federal government. He noted that his 14 years in the state Assembly had made him become too comfortable as an incumbent.

“Even though there was something like 8,000 more Democrats than Republicans … I didn’t see it coming,” he said.

“I came in on a (1994 Republican) tidal wave and went out on a tsunami,” Kirwan said. “It was a much more pleasurable ride coming in. I came in through stuff beyond my control and I went out through stuff beyond my control.”

Skartados, 52, disagreed with assessments that the win was part of a anti-Republican wave.

“Every single one of the rest of the people (in the Hudson Valley seeking state Assembly and Senate seats) who were running actually lost to incumbents, so I wouldn’t call that a tsunami,” he said.

“I think it was hard work, dedication, grass roots organizations, and people who were listening to the message and believing what I was saying,” Skartados said. “We managed to create a grass roots organization to pull this thing through.”

Skartados, a Marlboro resident since 2006, has owned the Aegean Night Life entertainment club at 33 Academy St., in Poughkeepsie, for 13 years. He was previously an environmental studies teacher at the New York Military Academy in Cornwall-on-Hudson from 1981 to 1995.

The 100th Assembly District includes the Ulster County towns of Marlborough, Lloyd and Shawangunk, as well as the city of Newburgh in Orange County and the cities of Poughkeepsie and Beacon in Dutchess County.

Source: Daily Freeman