With incumbent NYS Senator Tim Kennedy holding on to a slim 91 vote lead, pending the counting of over 1,000 paper ballots in his re-nomination battle vs. County Legislature Chair Betty Jean Grant, some supporters of the challenger are already claiming a kind of victory.

“Betty Jean already won even if she eventually loses this race,” says one,” and I'm not conceding that she's going to lose. I think she's got a good shot. But, win or lose, she's a winner because she was able to give hope and inspiration to thousands of voiceless people through her campaign. She's already proven to them that someone who looks like them can make a difference in this community and that is a big victory in itself.”

Meanwhile, some are saying that the results of the Kennedy/Grant battle point up the limitations of TV advertising in primary campaigns as opposed to strictly putting your time and money into Get Out The Vote close to election day.

“Look,” says one. “Tim Kennedy is a very hard working and effective state senator. But, his campaign spent over $400,000 on TV ads that were seen by a lot of people, the vast majority of whom were not going to be voting in this primary. Voter turnout for primaries is low anyway and when you add the fact that this primary was held on a Thursday, not a Tuesday and you are going to end up with an even lower turnout.”

“It might have been better to forgo all of those well produced ads and concentrate on hiring vans to car pool your voters to the polls last Thursday,” he continues. “Chairperson Grant did one mailing and did a bunch of robo calling and, in the end, she almost won, spending something like $17,000...It's a good lesson for all of us.”