In Niagara County, Seaman is elected DA, Filicetti sheriff, Wojtaszek judge

Republican Brian D. Seaman was elected Niagara County district attorney Tuesday, posting a margin at the polls that was slightly larger than the number of absentee ballots issued.

There was no suspense at all in the other countywide races, as Michael J. Filicetti won a lopsided race for sheriff and Caroline A. Wojtaszek, the outgoing DA, romped to victory in the contest for county judge.

In-person vote totals tallied by the county Board of Elections, counting both Tuesday's votes and those cast during the early voting period, gave Seaman, of Youngstown, 62% of the vote, a margin of nearly 20,000 over John D. Ceretto II of Lewiston, the Democratic candidate.

The Board of Elections said Tuesday it has received nearly 15,000 absentee ballots so far, out of 18,925 ballots it mailed out.

Seaman thanked the voters.

"I will be a district attorney dedicated to seeking justice for crime victims and keeping our community safe," he said late Tuesday.

Seaman was an assistant DA from 2006-2013, and prosecuted several high-profile felony trials, including the conviction of Adam Hamilton of Niagara Falls for shooting his girlfriend and two police officers in 2009. Hamilton is serving a 75-year sentence.

Seaman's campaign committee had spent more than $56,000 as of 11 days before the election, while some of his mail advertising was paid for by the Republican State Committee.

Ceretto never filed any financial disclosure data. His parents – former Assemblyman John D. Ceretto and Beth Ceretto, a former Lewiston councilwoman – drained their own political accounts to help him, but that netted less than $2,000.

Friday, The Buffalo News reported that Ceretto was fired from the DA's Office in 2018, after a woman reported he pounded on her door and window at 3:30 a.m., but it was unclear how much impact that had on the result. Seaman didn't pick up on it, saying only that it was up to the voters to decide how relevant it was.

In other countywide races, Wojtaszek, the outgoing DA, won a 10-year term as county judge, and Filicetti, the acting sheriff, romped to a full four-year term as the county's top cop.

The count of Tuesday's votes plus those cast at early voting sites gave Wojtaszek 82% of the vote against Michael E. Benedict of Lockport.

Both candidates are Democrats, but Wojtaszek, of North Tonawanda, won the Republican and Democratic primaries in June, leaving Benedict with only three minor-party lines.

Filicetti, a Lewiston Republican, also had both major-party lines. He romped over Brian D. Grear of Cambria, the Working Families Party candidate, whom Filicetti defeated in June's Democratic primary. Filicetti scored 92% of the vote.

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