(Photo: Facebook)

With all absentee and affidavit votes counted, Mr. Richards padded his razor-thin 26-vote Election Day margin with another 133 votes, while his main competitor, Pesach Osina, only gathered an additional 80. This brought the unofficial tally to 2,646 for Mr. Richards and 2,567 for Mr. Osina, a wide enough margin to avoid an automatic recount. The results will be certified next week.

"We have a lot of work to do in the district," Mr. Richards told Politicker at the Queens Board of Elections. "We have to also make sure we reconcile the communities. I think that it's important that all communities are working together. You know, Pesach ran a great campaign, I have no ill will towards him and I look forward to working with every community."

Mr. Richards was alluding to the controversy generated around Mr. Osina's candidacy. As an Orthodox Jew running in a majority-black district, Mr. Osina faced backlash from some members of the southeast Queens black community, notably Bishop Charles Norris, who warned the 8-way race would allow "the young Jewish boy from the Rockaways" to win with a low plurality of the vote.

Despite the narrow loss, Mr. Osina's supporters were buoyant about the election's outcome because it demonstrated their ability to mobilize voters in their small but growing Far Rockaway enclave.

"We didn't even run to win the seat," said Moshe Friedman, an Orthodox Jewish political operative who worked on Mr. Osina's campaign. "We were running so people should go out and understand that we could swing an election any way we want. This is going to happen in the primary. Richards will not go out tomorrow and say, 'Let me ignore that community.' Because we're going to be organized and bring out the vote. There's no way we would have won the [September] primary any how. .... We wish good luck and we're looking forward to working with him."

The outcome of the election did not upset Mr. Osina's election lawyer, Jerry Goldfeder, either.

"No involvement by lawyers," he said. "The Board personnel worked very well, the voters spoke. That's how it should be."

The State Assembly map in NYC for net year.

With last night's elections, a number of seats changed hands between the Democratic and Republican parties across New York State, and indeed the entire country. But in the five boroughs of New York City, it was a one-way street.

At the congressional level, for example, the city lost half its Republican representation with the exit of Queens' Bob Turner, who unsuccessfully ran for his party's nomination for the U.S. Senate. GOP Councilman Dan Halloran had his sights on the remnants of Mr. Turner's district in northeastern part of the borough, but the area's solidly Democratic tendencies allowed Assemblywoman Grace Meng to easily leap over Mr. Halloran and secure a new gig in Washington D.C.

While in the State Legislature, Republicans had specifically targeted Democratic Senator Joe Addabbo, reshaping his district to contain every single conservative-minded voter in eastern Queens. In addition, they deployed their top recruit in rising GOP star Eric Ulrich, who enjoyed a fundraising advantage throughout the race. Nevertheless, Mr. Addabbo held on, landing the coveted endorsement of Governor Andrew Cuomo as well as a big push from organized labor. Hurricane Sandy, which devastated many of the conservative areas drawn into Mr. Addabbo's district, didn't help Mr. Ulrich's electoral fortunes either, but it's not clear it was decisive in the outcome.

While in Brooklyn, Republicans had another loss when incumbent David Storobin couldn't muster up enough votes against Democratic former Councilman Simcha Felder. Mr. Felder, cozy with the Republican conference before the election, still might end up on the Republican team, but his victory demonstrated the increasingly Republican tendencies of the city's Orthodox Jewish population aren't enough when a socially conservative Democrat is on the ticket and backed by the community's political institutions. Senator Marty Golden, occupying a neighboring district, won with a comfortable margin last night and will now be the only Republican state legislator calling a borough other than Staten Island his home.

(At the City Council level, there are two Queens lawmakers outside of Staten Island, Mr. Ulrich and Mr. Halloran, mentioned above.)

In the State Assembly, it's a similar story but with districts gerrymandered to favor Democrats. Outside of a couple dozen blocks in Bay Ridge represented by Staten Island's Nicole Malliotakis, no part of Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx or Manhattan has GOP representation in the state's lower chamber. Even in conservative areas, Republican candidates failed to make a dent. Democratic Assemblyman Steve Cymbrowitz, for example, represents the heart of a conservative Russian community in southeastern Brooklyn, but managed an easy win thanks to his primary challenger, Ben Akselrod, staying on the Independence Party's line and grabbing almost 20 percent of the vote in the general election.

In some ways, Staten Island isn't even as much of a Republican stronghold it once was. In the heavily conservative South Shore, Assemblyman-Elect Joe Borelli will hold onto a Republican seat and State Senator Andy Lanza won't be going anywhere anytime soon, but Democrats have a decent presence themselves in other local officials. Indeed, in a bit of a shocker, President Barack Obama apparently managed to edge out Mitt Romney on the island, a benchmark he couldn't cross with his stronger performance in the 2008 presidential race.

The Grand Old Party did have one marquee victory, however, in the re-election of Staten Island's Congressman Michael Grimm, who managed to grab a number of Mr. Obama's supporters as he faced off against Democrat Mark Murphy. Although a federal investigation and other controversies dogged the incumbent, the electorate wasn't willing to embrace the negative headlines without solid evidence of wrongdoing present. Mr. Grimm's biography as veteran and former F.B.I. agent, and his status as one of the most active freshman legislators in the House of Representatives, certainly didn't hurt either.

This all isn't to say the Republicans aren't poised to make gains in 2013's City Council races and another round of congressional and state races in 2014; there are undoubtedly a number of potential pickup opportunities. Just a simple note that, after yesterday, the GOP's political landscape tilted even further towards the city's smallest borough.

Grace Meng and Michael Grimm (Photo: Meng Campaign/Getty)

New York State started off as a key battleground in the Democrats' battle to retake control of the U.S. House, especially after the courts intervened in the redistricting plan and shook up a lot of traditional boundaries. However, most of these races were focused in areas further Upstate and the suburbs, leaving the heavily Democratic New York City with just two congressional elections of note.

In Queens, Democratic Assemblywoman Grace Meng faced off against GOP Councilman Dan Halloran for a seat crafted from the district remnants of outgoing Congressmen Bob Turner and Gary Ackerman. Despite Mr. Halloran's polling showing the race a tie, those numbers did not pan out and Ms. Meng is currently ahead by roughly 2-to-1, which matches how Democrats have historically performed within the area.

In a more hotly contested race spanning Staten Island and southern Brooklyn, Republican Congressman Michael Grimm successfully defeated Democrat Mark Murphy, according to multiple projections. Democrats were initially hopeful that a barrage of bad headlines, notably an FBI investigation into Mr. Grimm's fundraising during his 2010 congressional campaign, would shift things in their favor. However, Mr. Grimm was an energetic legislator and an aggressive campaigner, resulting in an electorate apparently unwilling to indict him based on headlines alone.

Elsewhere in the state, endangered Democrats Tim Bishop and Bill Owens have both won as well, but Rep. Kathy Hochul, occupying staunchly conservative territory in Western New York, is narrowly trailing GOP challenger Chris Collins. In the Hudson Valley, Republican Congressman Chris Gibson has a modest lead over Julian Schreibman, while Mr. Gibson's GOP colleague, Nan Hayworth, is currently trailing her Democratic challenger Sean Patrick Maloney. Seats in Rochester and Syracuse have already been called for Democrats Louise Slaughter and Dan Maffei respectively, with Mr. Maffei's being a pickup for his party.

(Photo: Getty)

No surprises here. President Barack Obama and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand both emerged victorious in New York State tonight.

Although countless voters remain in line at New York City precincts, which are required to remain open for all voters who showed up before 9 p.m., the Empire State's overall preference for Democrats was still enough to overwhelm any ambiguity as to the ultimate victor.

Ms. Gillibrand, who dominated in pre-election polling and had a mammoth campaign war chest, was not expected to face a serious threat today. Her opponent, Republican attorney Wendy Long, waged an aggressive and energetic campaign, but, thanks to a lack in resources, never quite caught on. This victory will be Ms. Gillibrand's second in four years. In 2010, she won the 2-year remainder of then-Senator Hillary Clinton's term after the incumbent left to join the Obama administration.

Attention now will be paid to the downballot races, especially for the U.S. House where the redistricting process left an unusually large swath of competitive campaigns. In the New York City metropolitan area, these include the races of Long Island's Democratic incumbent, Tim Bishop, and GOP Representatives Michael Grimm and Nan Hayworth in Staten Island and the Hudson Valley respectively. Control of the New York State Senate could also potentially be in the air if Democratic candidates overperform expectations in a number of key races as well.

Nationwide, the Democratic Party has done well in U.S. Senate races so far. Connecticut's Chris Murphy, Massachusetts' Elizabeth Warren, Pennsylvania's Bob Casey and Florida's Bill Nelson have all been projected to win. In Indiana, Democrat Joe Donelly is currently leading Richard Mourdock, and, in Maine, Independent Angus King, who's expected to side with the Democrats, is the projected winner.

(Photo: Facebook)

A number of other candidates have won tough races tonight. As the results come trickling in, here are some notable ones:

Assemblyman William Boyland Jr., currently facing federal charges that he solicited bribes to pay his legal bills in an unrelated federal corruption case, won against a slew of challengers. Six opponents split the anti-Boyland vote, allowing him to skate by with a weak plurality.

State Senator Shirley Huntley, indicted a couple weeks ago on charges that she helped deliver member items to a sham non-profit, lost to Councilman James Sanders, who waged an aggressive campaign and managed to turn out his base in a seat made less favorable to Ms. Huntley in redistricting.

Despite John Messer's full campaign war chest and some less-than-ideal lines after redistricting, Queens Democrats successfully pulled Senator Toby Ann Stavisky across the finish line for a comfortable victory.

Walter Mosley, Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries pick to replace him, won a convincing victory over his fellow district leader, Ola Alabi.

Senator Martin Dilan, proving that Vito Lopez's woes are not his own, also won a dominating victory over his challenger Jason Otaño.

In what may be another victory from beyond Mr. Lopez's political grave, reports suggest District Leader Lincoln Restler is currently in a tough position against Chris Olechowski.

Assemblywoman Rhoda Jacobs somehow managed to pull off a dominating victory over Rodneyse Bichotte, even as the demographics of the district worked strongly against her. The veteran lawmaker will return to Albany for yet another term.

Also not sweating the demographics of his district, Assemblyman Mike Miller won against Etienne Adorno.

Ron Kim looks to be in a good position for Assemblywoman Grace Meng's old seat. Despite being backed by the county's Democratic organization, Mr. Kim appeared to be a bit of an underdog in the closing days of the campaign, so if true, it'll be an upset.

Mark Gjonaj looks like he'll pull it off against incumbent Assemblywoman Naomi Rivera, who's being investigated as to whether she abused her office.

In Brooklyn Civil Court races, we hear Richard Montelione and Schlomo Mostofsky were victorious.

Less surprising results:

• Eric Ulrich easily defeated Juan Reyes for the right to challenge Democratic Senator Joe Addabbo in November.
• Brad Holyman will replace State Senator Tom Duane in Manhattan.
• The Tischler brothers didn't make much of a mark against State Senate candidate Simcha Felder and Assemblyman Dov Hikind.
• Senator Neil Breslin cleaned up against spirited challenger Shawn Morse.
• Assemblyman Nick Perry defeated attorney Terry Hinds.
• Luis Sepulveda won Assemblyman Peter Rivera's old seat.

(Photo: Jon Reznick)

State Senator Adriano Espaillat declared victory against his challenger Guillermo Linares tonight, fending off  spirited campaign that a reignited rivalries both old and new. The officially reported numbers currently have Mr. Espaillat ahead by a 2-1 margin with many outstanding precincts, indicating that his internal numbers are likely accurate as to who the ultimate victor will be.

Notably, when Mr. Espaillat challenged veteran Congressman Charlie Rangel in the Democratic primary earlier this year, Mr. Linares backed the incumbent even as the local Dominican-American community rallied behind Mr. Espaillat's bid. During the campaign, Mr. Linares announced his intentions for Mr. Espaillat's seat and held true to that promise even after the state senator said he would run for reelection.

Mr. Rangel and some of the county establishment came out strong for Mr. Linares in this race, holding a press conference condemning a controversial Espaillat campaign mailer in the strongest terms possible days before voters headed to the polls. However, a number of forces rallied on Mr. Espaillat's behalf, including 2013 mayoral contenders Scott Stringer, Bill Thompson and Bill de Blasio, all of whom were at his victory party tonight.

Additionally, Mr. Linares' daughter Mayra ran for his old assembly seat this cycle. At the moment, she's trailing the Espaillat-backed candidacy of Gabriela Rosa.

Espaillat giving his concession speech to a crowd of reporters.

"I'm here to acknowledge that we came short two percent, I want to congratulate Congressman Charles B. Rangel for his victory and tell him that I look forward to working with him as we move forward," State Senator Adriano Espaillat announced at a sunny press conference in Inwood this afternoon.

"Back in 1996 when I first got into politics, I defeated a 16-year incumbent and I ran against the political establishment," he continued. "I did so again this year, everyone from Nancy Pelosi on down supported the incumbent, so I'm very proud to have run a very strong race."

The concession marks the end of a contentious and drama-filled sequence of events after Election Day in Congressman Rangel's reelection bid. Although Mr. Espaillat initially conceded when the Board of Elections reported a massive lead for Mr. Rangel, he later reengaged the race when additional results showed him only 800 or so votes behind.

Additionally, Mr. Espaillat made clear that he was dropping his lawsuit challenging the results, although he noted groups like Latino Justice may be pursuing incidents of voter suppression on their own. At today's press conference, he said he simply did not have the funds to continue a legal effort that wouldn't change who the ultimate victor would be.

"My attorneys have advised me that even though there are close to 2,000 invalid affidavit ballots, the math just doesn't work, that in fact it is virtually impossible for the results to be different," he explained.

The concession hardly comes as a surprise, as multiple outlets had already reported that it would occur. But Mr. Espaillat did contradict some of those reports by declaring that he had not yet decided if he would seek reelection to the State Senate this year.  During his congressional campaign he repeatedly vowed he was not seeking reelection "at this time," and Mr. Espaillat claimed to have only started looking at such a move after the campaign was over. The filing deadline is in a few days, so he'll need to decide his future plans soon, however.

"I have authorized some of the district leaders in the district to begin circulating petitions after the 26th, after Election Day," he said. "I promise you that in 48 hours, I will have that answer."

Outside of his level of support, Mr. Espaillat said his election could also serve as a jumping off point to reform the Board of Elections, an agency widely concerned to be an ineffective, patronage-based system. For example, just today, two weeks after Election Day, they found new votes from Mr. Espaillat's election.

"I failed to mention that today the Board of Elections found another 28 votes that we had not accounted for," the state senator chimed in as he was taking questions after his speech. "I think that this election should be an example for why there should be a vigorous debate about reforming the electoral process in New York State, primarily the Board of Elections."

Lew Fidler and David Storobin.

After 20,000 votes cast in a state senate special election that took place over a month ago, Republican candidate David Storobin still leads by 3 votes.

The legal teams of Mr. Storobin and his Democratic opponent Lew Fidler met in court earlier this afternoon to continue hashing out their arguments over absentee votes and fraud allegations. And, according to the campaigns, not a lot seems to have happened. One or two dozen more ballots challenged by Mr. Storobin got green-lighted to eventually be counted, which benefits Mr. Fidler, but that doesn't seem likely to happen anytime soon.

The biggest issue currently on hand is the Fidler campaign's allegation that a Storobin campaign staffer fraudulently collected absentee ballots. Mr. Fidler's lawyers contend the evidence suggests an illegal write-in campaign was conducted (in New York State, voters cannot vote absentee by choice and have to have a legitimate reason to do so) while Mr. Storobin's lawyers are likely arguing that the benefit of the doubt should be given to votes cast by legitimately registered voters.

Notably, the judge agreed to a subpoena against the Storobin staffer in question. "My understanding is that she has been ordered to appear for a deposition at Brooklyn Supreme court on Thursday morning," Mr. Storobin's spokesman, David Simpson, wrote in an update sent to reporters this evening, again calling the fraud allegations "bogus."

"The subpoena became necessary because the Storobin campaign refuses to produce this individual in court," Mr. Fidler's campaign manager, Kalman Yeger, wrote in his own update tonight. "We're confident that when this individual is brought before the court, the gritty details of Mr. Storobin's scheme will become public."

The judge may rule on the fraud allegation later this week, or maybe not. Regardless, an automatic hand recount of every ballot in the race seems fairly likely, which would drag on the process even further.

View Mr. Simpson's statement and Mr. Yeger's response below, which, like past statements, involve Mr. Storobin's charge that the ballots were challenged based on the Russian ethnicity of the voters who cast them rather than the campaign staffer who collected them.

Mr. Simpson:

Here’s a quick update from today’s hearing. Not much news I’m afraid.

First off, Judge Martin denied our motion for summary judgement (as we expected). It has little if any affect on how this will move forward except to make sure that 20-some ballots will be counted among the nearly 400 remaining unopened ballots.

Second, he reserved judgement on the fraud issue. We still have a motion pending to dismiss Fidler’s bogus fraud claim. As today --- just as was the case on Thursday of last week --- Fidler’s camp has yet to produce a single shred of evidence or a single witness to substantiate their claim that there was any fraud. It is only an unsupported theory at this point. The judge ordered Fidler’s attorneys to submit a “bill of particulars” which would, in theory, contain supporting evidence to support their fraud claim. We have no idea what that bill of particulars will contain because they haven’t given us any clue in court.

The judge also signed a subpoena order for Alla Pometko, the former Storobin campaign employee who helped produce the 177 absentee ballot applications that are in question and are the supposed subject of Mr. Fidler’s fraud allegation. My understanding is that she has been ordered to appear for a deposition at Brooklyn Supreme court on Thursday morning. That deposition would NOT be open to the public or to the press.

I will once again point out that most if not all of the absentee applications that are the subject of Mr. Fidler’s fraud claim are all native Russian speakers to the best our our knowledge. Ms. Pometko herself is also a native Russian. We maintain that this is systematic targeting of ethnic voters on the part of the Fidler campaign and the Democrat Party and a clear case of voter intimidation.

Finally, the judge ordered all parties to reconvene in court on Thursday morning at 10am. I am assuming that there will be arguments / discussion on the bill of particulars that is to be produced by Mr. Fidler’s attorneys the day before. There may also be some further discussion on Ms. Pometko’s deposition. Judge Martin may or may not rule on our motion to dismiss their fraud claim, or it could take a little longer. Although I will say the judge made it clear he wants to get this thing moving and wrapped up as soon as possible. ...that makes at least two of us.

That’s all for now. Check back with me on Thursday afternoon.

Mr. Yeger:

"As Mr. Storobin's illegal voting scheme continues to unfurl, we're not surprised that his spin bears no relation to the truth.

"The court issued a subpoena for the Storobin staffer who appears to have coordinated Mr. Storobin's illegal voting scheme. The subpoena became necessary because the Storobin campaign refuses to produce this individual in court. We're confident that when this individual is brought before the court, the gritty details of Mr. Storobin's scheme will become public.

"If the challenged absentee ballots are from Russian-speaking voters, it is only because Mr. Storobin's campaign targeted its illegal voting scheme on his own community. It is a felony to vote by absentee ballot if you are not entitled to receive one. Some of Mr. Storobin's 'permanently disabled' applicants for absentee ballots managed to make it to the polls and vote a second time. There are also an additional 50-60 ballots obtained by Mr. Storobin's staff, but never returned to the Board of Election. We believe these facts merit a full hearing so the people can learn how Mr. Storobin tried to steal this election, and what happened to those missing ballots.

"Today, in a well-thought opinion, the court denied Mr. Storobin's request to discard ballots cast by people who have been permanently registered absentee voters FOR YEARS. Justice works."

David Storobin (Photo: Facebook)

The March 20th special election between Democrat Lew Fidler and Republican David Storobin continued to drag on this afternoon, as a judge heard, but did not rule on, Mr. Storobin's motion to dismiss Mr. Fidler's fraud lawsuit against a bit over a hundred of his absentee ballots. Mr. Storobin is currently holding on to a three-vote lead, so obviously this could prove critical in determining the ultimate winner of the Brooklyn State Senate seat.

Nothing of note seems to have happened during this afternoon's hearing, but according to Mr. Storobin's campaign, the judge is expected to rule on the fraud allegations when the respective parties' legal teams meet in court again on Monday.

"The only thing worth mentioning is that as of today's hearing -- a full month after election day -- the Democrats and Fidler's campaign have yet to produce one single piece of evidence, witness to, participant in, or even a specific enumeration of their bogus allegation of fraud," Mr. Storobin's campaign spokesman David Simpson claimed in a statement. "The only thing they are basing their fraud allegation on is that the Storobin campaign hired people (more specifically one person in question) to make sure absentee ballots were available to Russian voters who need them."

[Update: The Fidler campaign responds to these claims in the update at the bottom]

The argument from Mr. Fidler's campaign, however, is actually significantly more complicated than this. His lawyers contend various pieces of evidence surrounding the campaign staffer's absentee ballots -- including a number of voters swearing to their disability but turning up to vote on Election Day regardless -- suggest the votes were fraudulently collected.

It's a very tricky legal argument, however, and it's difficult to guess at how the judge will ultimately rule.

If neither candidate leads by 110 votes when the issue is settled, an automatic hand recount of all 20,000 votes cast in the race will occur, so the ultimate winner of this State Senate contest may still be up in the air for some time yet.

View Mr. Simpson's full update below:

Today Judge Mitchell heard arguments on two issues: 1) our motion for summary judgment & 2) their claim of fraud and our motion to dismiss that claim. We are back in court on Monday at 2:15 when he is expected to rule on both.

The only thing worth mentioning is that as of today's hearing -- a full month after election day -- the Democrats and Fidler's campaign have yet to produce one single piece of evidence, witness to, participant in, or even a specific enumeration of their bogus allegation of fraud. In other words, they produced nothing in their court arguments today that would substantiate their claim. And they have had a full month to do so.

The only thing they are basing their fraud allegation on is that the Storobin campaign hired people (more specifically one person in question) to make sure absentee ballots were available to Russian voters who need them. As you know BOE materials are not printed in Russian but a large percentage of the district read and speak only Russian. We believed it was a worthwhile effort to engage these voters, many of them for the first time, in the electoral process. This is a practice that is not only 100% legal (kosher, if you like), every single campaign I have ever been involved with has operated an absentee ballot program that works the same way. And so do the Democrats.

We maintain that Lew Fidler believes that his only chance to win this election is to collectively disenfranchise well more than a hundred Russian voters who properly cast absentee ballots in accordance with the law. Nothing could be a more egregious violation of our democratic principles than disenfranchising people on the basis of their racial or ethnic background. Shame on Mr. Fidler.

Update: Mr. Fidler's campaign manager Kalman Yeger emails in his response to Mr. Simpson:

"With due respect, the Storobin campaign is hardly qualified to decide what is legal, much less what is kosher.

"New York State law prohibits absentee voting except for voters who are unable to get to the polls on Election Day. There is significant evidence that Mr. Storobin's staff conducted an illegal mail-in campaign. We'll let the Court decide.

"In the meantime, the Storobin campaign spent today urging the Court to discard over a hundred votes cast by people who have been permanently registered absentee voters FOR YEARS. Unlike Mr. Storobin's illegal voting operation, the ballots being challenged by Mr. Storobin were not delivered by either campaign. And unlike Mr. Storobin's illegal voting operation, the challenged voters didn't all register for their absentee ballots through a single individual employed by Mr. Storobin.

"It seems the only ballots Mr. Storobin wants counted are those his staff delivered to the Board of Elections."

 

Lew Fidler (Photo: Facebook)

Democratic State Senate candidate Lew Fidler is locked in a tight process of counting the final absentee and provisional votes from a March 20th special election, and over Facebook, he outlined both his specific path to victory and held out hope that the gerrymandered State Senate lines will still be thrown back to the drawing board. Currently, Mr. Fidler's Republican opponent, David Storobin, leads by 3 votes.

First, Mr. Fidler articulated why he thinks he'll ultimately be up in the count when the court opens all of the ballots not alleged to be fraudulent, a process that will begin with another hearing tomorrow.

"The Court Referees have recommended opening most of the ballots that the Storobin campaign challenged, about 130/140 or so, but only 35 of the ballots that our attorneys challenged," he wrote last week. "We believe that when they are opened, we will move ahead in the count significantly---dare I say it, nay even think it, by double digits or more."

A Brooklyn Daily report also agreed with Mr. Fidler's analysis here, however, the result may actually depend on how many of his own votes Mr. Storobin challenged as there are many ideologically conservative registered Democrats in southeastern Brooklyn.

Regardless, Mr. Fidler's campaign will then head to trial to try and prove over a hundred absentee ballots, collected by one of Mr. Storobin campaign staffers, are fraudulent. This could prove decisive in determining the overall winner as almost all of these votes would be certain to go to Mr. Storobin.

Even if Mr. Fidler wins this election, he faces a dilemma in running for reelection. The Senate Republicans, anticipating his possible victory, drew his neighborhood into a faraway district while effectively dismantling the senate district he is currently seeking to represent.

However, given last week's proceedings of the Senate Democrats' lawsuit alleging the new redistricting plan unconstitutionally increased the size of the State Senate, Mr. Fidler sees optimism there as well.

"I am told that this past Friday, buried in the hubbub of a holiday weekend that I hope everyone else enjoyed as much as I did, a State Supreme Court Justice in Manhattan reserved decision on plaintiff's argument that the 63rd Senate district created by the Senate Republicans is unconstitutional," he wrote yesterday. "In the event that the Court rules that it is, the current Senate lines would have to be tossed and one less district drawn statewide. Which means---hold on here Ed Koch---we might very well get a truly independent redistricting for the State Senate this year! Teach THOSE guys to renege on a written promise made to the people of New York!"

If the court sides with the Democrats, then it would appear likely that a new 62-seat plan would need to be quickly drawn (if it's not already) and passed, or risk having the court decide a special master is needed to intervene and draw its own state legislative lines. Funnily enough, should he win, a court intervention here could hypothetically work to Mr. Storobin's benefit as well, as his base in the Russian speaking community was thrown into a heavily Democratic Staten Island-based district under the current redistricting plan.

Needless to say, there are a lot of unknowns and the entire process is fairly likely to go to an automatic hand recount. Or, as Mr. Fidler put it, "I don't know if I am in Mooseport, Florida or Oz!"