BINGHAMTON, NY (WIVT/WBGH) – One of the candidates seeking the Republican nomination for Broome County District Attorney appears have been lining up a backup strategy in the event that he loses the GOP primary.

Broome County Democratic Party Chairwoman Barbara Fiala tells NewsChannel 34 that she met with current D.A. Mike Korchak about the possibility of the Democrats cross-endorsing him.

Fiala says the discussion was preliminary in nature and that Korchak was cautiously interested in running on the Democratic line.

She says now that former Binghamton Mayor Matt Ryan, a Democrat, has announced his candidacy, Fiala says she is excited to support his campaign.

She says Democrats prefer not to endorse a Republican in a race.

In an email that Fiala sent to the Broome County Democratic Committee on February 21st, she canceled a meeting of the full committee that had been scheduled for this coming Monday to discuss “a motion to cross-endorse in a major county race.”

In the note, she indicates that communications she had received since the endorsement was proposed indicated that the endorsement “would not be well-received and likely fail.”

Ryan, who plans to run on a criminal justice reform agenda, told NewsChannel 34 yesterday that not having the Democrats back Korchak was one of the factors in his decision to run.

When reached yesterday, Korchak would neither confirm nor deny that he had met with Fiala.

However, he says he is exploring all of his options and was open to any party that would support him.

Korchak says the point is moot now that Ryan is running as a registered Democrat in the race which pre-empts his ability, as a Republican, to receive the cross-endorsement.

Korchak says he’s busy collecting petition signatures for a Republican primary against local attorney Paul Battisti.

Four years ago, Battisti defeated Korchak in the GOP primary, but Korchak won the general election in a 3-way race running on the Libertarian line.

Changes to New York’s election law would make it much more difficult for Korchak to run on such a third-party line this time around.