Sylvia Friedman voted early Tuesday morning at Coral Tower on 14th St. and Third Ave. in the special election for the East Side’s 74th Assembly District. Later that evening, Friedman, a Democrat, was announced the unofficial winner, with 2,577 votes to Republican Frank Scala’s 1,060 votes. The turnout was a little higher than the 1,500 that the Board of Elections was anticipating, according to Paul Nelson, Friedman’s campaign manager, though Nelson noted that the district has 100,000 registered voters, so the turnout was, in reality, disappointingly low. Friedman will fill the seat formerly held by Steve Sanders, who retired from the Legislature at the end of December. There will be a primary election in September. Friedman said it was gratifying to win election to the Assembly after spending 30 years in the trenches in political clubs and working getting out the vote. “It’s very exciting,” she said. “The next thing is to live up to people’s expectations. I certainly will try to do that.” She said she received a congratulatory call from Congressmember Carolyn Maloney and that Councilmember Dan Garodnick stopped by her victory party.
