State Sen. Cathy Osten, D-Sprague, seeking a fifth term, claimed victory early Wednesday morning in her race against Republican challenger Steve Weir, even as some Norwich absentee ballots were still uncounted.

By Osten's count in a text, she was up 21,451 votes to Weir's 20,475 as of 12:43 a.m. She didn't expect the Norwich absentee ballots that were still uncounted to affect the race's outcome.

"Norwich carries me every year," Osten had said on Election Day.

The 19th Senate District includes Columbia, Franklin, Hebron, Lebanon, Ledyard, Lisbon, Marlborough, Norwich, Sprague and a section of Montville.

"It looks like turnout in Norwich is going to be close to 80%," Osten said while talking with campaign workers at Stanton School in Norwich Tuesday night. She said that would be higher than the city experienced when Barack Obama ran for president. Early on, voters lined up practically to the street at Stanton School, campaign workers said.

"A lot of the election was about the top of the ticket," said Osten, who visited all 18 polling sites in the district.

Her battle for another term came against Hebron resident Weir, 46, a former police officer who had never run for public office.

"I had a lot of positive vibes," Weir said at the Prime 82 restaurant in Norwich before the vote count started. "I've had a lot of fun with this."

Weir, a business owner, had campaigned largely on a pledge to keep a lid on taxes and the state budget, which he complained had soared under Democratic stewardship. But Osten, co-chair of the Legislature's Appropriations Committee, had countered by pointing to her fiscal austerity in repeatedly cutting the budget to the point that the state has 1950s-level numbers of employees

The candidates also clashed on the police accountability bill passed in the General Assembly earlier this year. Osten called it a needed reform, while Weir said it could make it harder to recruit police officers and could put the community in jeopardy if certain law enforcement practices were no longer allowed.

Weir and Osten disagreed on tolls, too, with Osten generally in favor and Weir totally opposed. Osten called tolls a "user fee" and said every state in New England except for Vermont counts on tolls to support transportation funding. Weir said people couldn't count on the legislature using toll money on infrastructure.

A member of the Hebron Zoning Board of Appeals, Weir runs a disaster restoration and cleanup services firm with about 40 employees. He objected to the blanket emergency powers the legislature bestowed on Gov. Ned Lamont due to the COVID-19 pandemic, saying he would prefer that lawmakers periodically review specific restrictions to see if they continue to be necessary.

Osten, forced by the pandemic to do many Zoom town halls rather than her usual campaign door-knocking, had pointed to her district's concerns about health care and the economy as major issues. Weir said he had not heard any concerns about health care as he went door to door, mask at the ready.

l.howard@theday.com