Democrats managed to hold onto, or win, a large number of seats in the New York City area. (Photo: WNYC.org)

Although most of the attention last night was rightfully placed on the presidential race, a number of important state legislative campaigns were also waged, which, depending on how they turn out, could potentially have a significant impact on the legislation and policies that emerge out of Albany in the coming years. Notably, control of the New York State Senate hangs in the balance, and if Democrats win there, the party would control the trifecta of the state government as they already have an overwhelmingly majority in the State Assembly and a similarly aligned governor.

With one temporary exception, the senate has been continuously controlled by the GOP in recent years. Despite a large fundraising edge and an aggressive gerrymander which appeared to have locked in a Republican majority for the immediate future, a number of surprisingly strong Democratic victories pushed back against the conventional wisdom that they had no chance at reversing their fortunes this year,

Notably, the Republicans had specifically targeted two Democrats for elimination, Queens' Joe Addabbo and Westchester's Suzi Oppenheimer, by refashioning their district boundaries to include far more Republican turf than in 2010. However, Mr. Addabbo fended off a challenge GOP Councilman Eric Ulrich, and, thanks to Ms. Oppenheimer's retirement and the strong candidacy of Democratic Assemblyman George Latimer, Democrats managed to protect both seats.

Elsewhere in the state, Democrat Ted O'Brien successfully claimed a Rochester seat previously held by Republican Jim Alesi. Mr. Alesi, facing a likely primary challenge after voting in favor of gay marriage in 2011, opted to not run for reelection. Another pro-gay marriage Republican senator, Poughkeepsie's Steve Saland, survived a primary challenge only to have his opponent run against him on the Conservative line in the general election, allowing Democrat Terry Gipson squeak by in a 43%-to-42% plurality surprise win. This was despite Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo providing a cross-party endorsement to Mr. Saland.

(With Republican Roy McDonald losing a primary challenge of his own, only one of the four Republican votes for same sex marriage will be in the State Senate next year, Buffalo's Mark Grisanti.)

And in the closest race of all, Democrat Cecilia Tkaczyk has a razor-thin 140-vote margin over Republican Assemblyman George Amedore, whom a new State Senate seat was drawn for in the Albany suburbs.

Additionally, Simcha Felder, who ran on the Democratic and Conservative Party lines against GOP incumbent David Storobin, pulled off a win in a heavily Orthodox Jewish seat in Brooklyn. Mr. Felder had sent signals he would prefer to caucus with a Republican majority, but with stronger-than-expected Democratic performances elsewhere, it's possible the Democrats will be able to cut a deal to keep him on their side.

The Democratic conference is particularly prone to infighting, however, and there is an outstanding issue that must be resolved even if Ms. Tkaczyk holds onto her win and Mr. Felder comes around: the four Democratic senators who broke away from the party and stopped caucusing with them last year. Protesting the leadership of Minority Leader John Sampson, the quartet formed a breakaway, Republican-friendly "Independent Democratic Conference" in 2011. If they cannot be brought back into the fold, Republicans would still be able to cling to a 30-29-4 majority.

Democrats nevertheless declared victory last night, sending out a message to their supporters entitled, "Dems take back the Senate!"

"New Yorkers elected a Democratic majority in the State Senate," Parkside Group's Evan Stavisky, whose firm served as the principle consultants for the Senate Democrats, told Politicker this morning. “In a crowded election year with competitive races across the state, and up and down the ballot, the challenge is to maximize your resources and make every dollar count."

For their part, a spokesman for the Senate Republicans told The New York Times, “We are confident that once all the votes are in, we will retain our majority.”

"BOE found more paper ballots on floor. Cool!" the Espaillat campaign's spokesman tweeted Friday evening.

State Senator Adriano Espaillat certainly can't be be accused of sitting down after his reported loss to veteran Rep. Charlie Rangel in last Tuesday's Democratic primary. As Mr. Rangel's lead whittled down to just 802 votes over the weekend, the Espaillat campaign hired election law guru Marty Connor and promoted a hotline available for voters to register complaints about Election Day shenanigans. A State Supreme Court will hear an injunction request from Mr. Espaillat today and the Board of Elections will start counting more than 2,000 affidavit ballots Thursday morning.

“As the New York State Supreme Court considers the serious voting-access and counting issues in the 13th Congressional District election, we are pleased to welcome Marty Connor to lead our legal team,” Mr. Espaillat's spokesman, Ibrahim Khan, said in a press release. “Our campaign will continue to push for every vote to be counted in a transparent and democratic process.”

And Mr. Connor, a former Minority Leader of the New York State Senate, certainly has experience in close elections. He was recently the lead lawyer for Lew Fidler's ultimately unsuccessful state senate campaign where the winning margin was a mere 13 votes.

Mr. Espaillat's campaign also made a statement available from the Dominican American National Roundtable, which called for the U.S. Department of Justice to step in and monitor the proceedings and provided a hotline available for individuals to share anecdotes of voter suppression. Mr. Espaillat, who would be the first Dominican American congressman if elected, had his largest base of support in the Dominican community.

“As a national organization that closely monitors public affairs in the Latino community, in general, and the Dominican Community, in particular, we have witnessed disturbing allegations of voter suppression and lack of transparency in the 13th Congressional District election,” Dr. Maria Teresa Montilla, the organization's president, said. “We are calling on the United States Department of Justice to take immediate action to monitor the Board of Elections’ proceedings and resolve issues that threaten the constitutionally guaranteed voting rights of all Americans. We are also appealing to any voters who encountered any barriers to the ballot box, including misinformation and lack of interpretation services, to call-in to a voter hotline we have established and help us document voter suppression complaints.”

For its part, Mr. Rangel's campaign has maintained confidence that their candidate will be returning to Washington next year. This is a fairly rational position as that 802-vote margin will be a very tall order for Mr. Espaillat to make up.

Mitt Romney celebrating his victories last night. (Photo: Getty)

A Siena College Research Institute poll of registered voters released today showed Rick Santorum will have his work cut out for him when he and Mitt Romney go head to head in New York State's Republican presidential primary on April 24th.

“Given their favorability ratings among Republicans, it's not surprising that Romney has opened a wide lead in New York's Republican presidential primary," Siena pollster Steve Greenberg said in a statement. "He is supported by 38 percent of Republicans, with Santorum being supported by 23 percent, Gingrich 13 percent and Paul 11 percent."

"The race has changed dramatically since early February when Romney led narrowly over Gingrich, and Santorum was in fourth place,” he added.

Mr. Romney beats Mr. Santorum among every demographic in the poll, including gender, ideology, religion, region, income, and age. The only data points where Mr. Romney didn't hold a dominating double-digit edge is among self-described conservatives, where he led by only 6, and among 18-34 year olds, where it is actually Mr. Paul in the lead with 42% of the vote.

Regardless of who wins the Republican primary, President Barack Obama looks strongly favored to win New York in the general election this November. Siena showed Mr. Obama up 26% over Mr. Romney and 34% over Mr. Santorum.

Click Fullscreen to view the full cross-tabs below: