The Republican Party's take on this year's race for State Senate in the 49th District has been that Democrat incumbent David Valesky is vulnerable. They believed they could carry the district, which covers an area from Oneida and Madison counties in the east to Cayuga and Onondaga counties to the west, if they could present a unified front. Our Bill Carey says that goal is proving elusive.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- He had picked up Conservative Party endorsements in all four counties in the district. Cayuga County republicans had voted in his favor. So when a majority of Onondaga County Republican Committee members backed Andrew Russo in the 49th State Senate district race, the contest seemed over. Until a vote in Madison County, a winner take all decision, gave East Syracuse Mayor Dan Liedka a boost.

Oneida County has yet to cast its ballots, but the two candidates are both claiming victory.

"I have a pretty sizeable lead, an insurmountable lead. So I believe I am the endorsed candidate," Dan Liedka said.

"I believe that between winning 70 percent of the district on the Republican line and holding the Conservative line that I'm the candidate who should be running against Dave Valesky," Russo said.

Resolving the dispute amicably seems very unlikely. Both candidates now admit a primary is probably inevitable. Just the type of drain on resources that they hoped to avoid heading into a battle against a Democrat incumbent.

"I think people want to avoid it because there's so much at stake. They feel that the downside of it is too risky. But at the same time, I suppose you can't really predict, especially in the current political climate, whether it would, indeed, be detrimental to a general election victory in November or not," Russo said.

"If nothing else, the positive? It gets me prepared for the race with Dave Valesky. And we're going to go after it. Obviously, we're going to have to kick up the fundraising efforts, which we've already done. But, I believe, at the end of the day, we're going to have the resources. We've already got the people in place to take on Dave, regardless of the primary or not," Liedka said.

Party leaders have been scrambling to try to come up with some solution. Those efforts, so far, have gone nowhere.