State Sen. Patricia A. Ritchie, R-Heuvelton, retained her seat in the 48th district during Tuesday’s election.

Sen. Ritchie won 60,474 votes in St. Lawrence, Oswego and Jefferson counties as of 12:00 a.m. Wednesday according to the unofficial tally by the county Boards of Election. Four districts were yet to report in Jefferson county.

Sen. Ritchie beat out Amy M. Tresidder, a Democratic county legislator in Oswego County and the Democratic challenger, who took home an unofficial vote count of 25,742.

In St. Lawrence county the unofficial tally showed Sen. Ritchie raking in 12,837 votes while Ms. Tresidder garnered 4,108. In Oswego county Sen. Ritchie took in 25,207 votes leaving 13,426 to Ms. Tresidder. In Jefferson county Sen. Ritchie had 22,430 votes compared to 8,208 for Ms. Tresidder.

“I’ve been very fortunate to have such strong volunteers,” said Sen. Ritchie, speaking at her campaign headquarters Tuesday night in Ogdensburg’s Seaway Shopping Center off Canton Street.

“I’ve been out seven days a week, 12 hours a day pretty much for two years straight,” she said. “The voters recognize that I’m out every day, doing the best I can for them.”

Sen. Ritchie said her focus for the next two years will be bringing jobs and economic development to the north country.

“I will continue the same line from the last two years to help create jobs and reduce taxes,” she said.

“We need to reduce property taxes, reduce the regulatory burden and we also need to try and reduce energy costs here in New York,” Sen. Ritchie added.

Ms. Tresidder said she spent the last week of the campaign working on the ground game too.

“I’ve been everywhere,” she said, adding that her campaign has taken her from one end of the district to the other including Canton and Watertown.

But with the unofficial results showing her trailing Sen. Ritchie, Ms. Tresidder said, “I think we did a good job. We did it ourselves.”

She said is going to focus on her job as a county legislator. “We got to get the budget done,” she said.

Thomas L. Jenison, chair of the St. Lawrence County Republican Party, said Sen. Ritchie was a champion of the ground game.

The Senator has been working hard to get her name in the public eye and has been campaigning nonstop said Mr. Jenison. “She’s out shown her opponents in the way.”

Patricia A. McMurry, Sen. Ritchie’s assistant, said, “Everyone’s worked really hard and we’re all taking a deep breath.”

The county Boards of Election will finalize the vote counts over the next several days.

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