Lasting tension over violence in state prisons and a shortage of correction officers is hanging over independent voters who will choose the person to represent the North Country’s state Assembly seat in a special election on Nov. 4.

Voters on Election Day will choose which party will claim the purple 115th state Assembly District, which includes Clinton, Franklin and Essex counties. The seat was recently vacated by Democrat Billy Jones.

A verdict was handed down Monday in the beating death of Robert Brooks, who was killed while incarcerated at Marcy Correctional Facility last December. The Oneida County jury found David Kingsley guilty of second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter charges, and acquitted Mathew Galliher and Nicholas Kieffer of murder, manslaughter and second-degree gang assault. Kieffer was also found not guilty of offering a false instrument for filing.

With less than two weeks until Election Day, developments in that case, and the aftermath of the wildcat strike earlier this year, are expected to play a pivotal role in the outcome of the tight race.

“The overwhelming thing I’m hearing is people want change, and that’s across the board,” said Republican candidate Brent Davison, a retired State Police major and troop commander.

“That’s Republicans, Democrats, undecideds, others… People want change,” he added.

New York prisons are short 4,500 correction officers after thousands participated in a wildcat strike in February and March. The illegal strike started the same day correction officers were charged in connection with Brooks’ death.

Prison safety is at top of mind for North Country voters as they decide who to elect to the 115th Assembly District.

Davison said he’ll fight to repeal the HALT Act that limited the use of solitary confinement.

“I want to go down there and bring a common-sense, strong voice to Albany,” said Davison, a lifelong resident of the district.

Albany lawmakers continue to clash on party lines about prison staffing, officer misconduct and the HALT Act’s impact on safety.

But Democratic candidate Michael Cashman said he also supports a full repeal of the policy.

“We need to get the National Guard out of the prisons — they do not belong there,” he told Spectrum News 1. “And that’s an example of while I may be a Democrat, I will push back on my fellow Democrats.”

Both candidates have knocked on thousands of doors throughout the district to appeal to all voters.

The last two lawmakers to hold the seat — Jones, a Democrat, and Janet Duprey, a former Republican who held the seat from 2007 to 2016 — have endorsed Cashman, who’s been the Plattsburgh town supervisor for the last decade.

Duprey said he’s an effective local leader who works with all political parties, and he’s ready to continue that work in Albany.

“As the town supervisor, he has delivered a decade of balanced budgets, strategic infrastructure investments and transparency,” she said. “He has redefined local governance.”

But rural residents in the North Country are also focused on affordability, telling candidates they’re struggling with higher costs, and need relief from Albany.

Davison, a U.S. Army veteran, said he’ll fight to lower costs and roll back some of the state’s expensive clean energy mandates, like for electric buses, that don’t work in the North Country.

“We do not have the grid to support it, because of the weather, it’s just not going to work up here,” he argued.

His push for change is why Lorraine Torgesen, a member of the Clinton County Republican Committee, said Davison has her vote.

“I think he’s not shy,” she said. “He’ll stand up for us and he won’t be backing down to any of the opposition voices down there.”

The 115th District has close to the same number of registered Democrats, Republicans and independent voters — meaning candidates must connect with people who don’t identify with any party to get to Albany next year.

And Cashman said he’ll be a strong voice for affordable housing and support for Northern New Yorkers if he gets there.

“I will be part of the majority, and there’s a huge difference between being a person in the room versus somebody knocking at the door, and that’s what my opponent will be doing,” Cashman said.

Davison said he’s skeptical of Cashman’s opposition to the HALT Act, and that he hasn’t been a loud critic of the law that changed the state’s solitary confinement rules until trying to woo voters. 

Cashman said he’s been against the policy ever since lawmakers passed it in 2021, and that he never would have voted for it.

The special election takes place Nov. 4. Early voting runs from Oct. 25 to Nov. 2.