TROY – Rensselaer County voters chose a new direction for criminal justice Tuesday, electing former East Greenbush Town Justice Mary Pat Donnelly as their next district attorney, turning away from incumbent Joel Abelove, whose term in office has been marked by scandal and mismanagement.

The Democratic winner’s campaign promise of “competence and integrity” overwhelmed her Republican opponent’s platform of experience by a 31,544-25,733 vote, according to the county Board of Elections.

“I believe the message was heard,” Donnelly said at Ryan’s Wake where county Democrats celebrated.

Abelove left the Polish American Club in South Troy without commenting. Most of his fellow Republicans quickly left their election night gathering.

Donnelly, a 45-year-old mother of five, is an enrolled Independence Party member with strong ties to the Democratic Party. Her late father Timothy Murphy was a county Democratic chairman and Albany police officer, and her mother, Toni, is the East Greenbush receiver of taxes.

Donnelly’s candidacy drew women voters to the Democrats and built an overwhelming majority. She emerged with a 10 percentage point victory, 55 percent to 45 percent.

She pounded away at Abelove’s ethical problems from the attorney general’s investigation to delays in securing special prosecutors in cases involving conflicts of interest. She also questioned the high turnover rates among assistant district attorneys and the failure to supervise the office’s caseloads.

“The mistakes were many. The mistakes were well publicized,” Donnelly said of Abelove’s tenure.

Donnelly cited her father’s and husband’s work as Albany police officers to offset one of Abelove’s strongest positions – that of protecting county gun owners who opposed the state’s SAFE Act that tightened up gun control laws.

Her September primary win when she secured the Independence Party line helped ensure her easy victory Tuesday. Democratic and Republican county political operatives and observers had predicted that without the Independence ballot position, Abelove, 49, of Rensselaer would not be able to overcome the baggage he had built up during his first-term in office.

In Abelove’s 2014 election, he received 1,682 votes on the Independence line feeding his narrow 498 vote margin of victory.

Abelove spent most of his time in office under investigation by the state attorney general’s office for his handling of a police involved fatal shooting of a DWI suspect in April 2016 in Troy. Abelove was indicted by a special county grand jury for interfering and lying about the investigation of the shooting. The charges were dismissed in June, but the state is seeking to have them reinstated.

Questions also were raised about Abelove’s failure to prosecute fellow Republicans after he came into office. In addition, Abelove’s office had a steady stream of felony cases dismissed for violating speedy trial guidelines and infuriated police officers around the county who had investigated and made arrests in the cases.

Donnelly said she plans to name a new first assistant district attorney and does not plan a major overhaul of the assistant district attorneys on staff.

Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated the name of Mary Pat Donnelly's late father. His name is Timothy Murphy.