The State Troopers PBA congratulates Catharine Young in her election to the 57^th Senate District in western New York. Young, who had been serving as an Assemblywoman, ran for the Senate seat vacated by the recent death of Patricia McGee. A special election was held on May 10, and Young defeated her challenger. The PBA supported Young in her bid for the Senate with an endorsement and by emceeing a press conference announcing support from public safety labor. The PBA wishes Young the best in her new endeavor as a member of the New York State Senate. Below is an article printed in The Buffalo News announcing Young’s victory in the election.

By KATHY KELLOGG
Cattaraugus Correspondent
5/11/2005

OLEAN – Catharine M. Young defeated Democrat Nancy Gay Bargar, a real estate executive, in a special election Tuesday to fill the seat left vacant by the April 2 death of Republican Patricia K. McGee.

With all precincts reporting, Young, a Republican state assemblywoman from Olean, had 28,100 votes, or 70 percent, compared with Bargar’s 12,161 votes, or 30 percent, to win the 57th Senate District seat.

Late Tuesday evening, several-hundred Young supporters gathered in the Premier Banquet Center in Olean to await Young’s appearance and victory speech.

Bargar, from Lakewood, conceded the race at 9:50 p.m. in a speech to her supporters at Forte’s Restaurant on Third Avenue in Jamestown.

Young, surrounded by aides, watched the polls on an Internet feed behind locked doors at her headquarters on West State Street.

Cattaraugus County Democratic Chairman Dan McCandless said Bargar was simply outspent.

"We were not able to overcome the money spent," he said. "We were outspent 4-1 and it was tough to win."

The contest in the largely Republican district – in Chautauqua, Cattaraugus and Allegany counties, and parts of Livingston County – was called by Gov. George E. Pataki within days of McGee’s death from lung disease.

Young stood on her record of an early budget passage, and campaigned for Medicaid reform and a larger local share of Seneca casino slot revenues.

Bargar pointed to her reputation as an environmentalist, as author of Chautauqua County’s Farmland Protection Plan and work on the cleanup of the Levant tire dump.