Donovan Richards

Flanked by a coterie of elected officials, Donovan Richards declared victory last night in a wide-open, eight-way Queens City Council special election. Seven miles south, Pesach Osina did the same exact thing.

With 97 percent of precincts reporting, Mr. Richards leads Mr. Osina by just 26 votes, easily making the 31st District race too close for observers to call. Vote counting ceased at midnight and will resume today, but at last glance, Mr. Richards had 2,513 votes to Mr. Osina's 2,487. In addition to a potentially missing memory stick from a ballot scanner, absentee and paper ballots still need to be counted. A recount is also likely, but each candidate acted like the undisputed victors nevertheless.

"I'm calling on the community tonight to put aside their differences. Those who ran in this election, let's not be bitter against each other," Mr. Richards said at a bustling lounge in Laurelton, Queens. "If you are really for the community, if you are truly for the community, whether it is the Orthodox Jewish community, whether it is the African-American community, whether it is the Jamaican community, whether it is the Haitian community, whether it is our white brothers and sisters, I am calling on you to get your hands dirty and get in here. And let's make sure we are not losing young people to this gun violence on these streets."

"And let's stop the foolish conversation of two councilmen in the district. The numbers do not lie, we've seen the numbers, we have declared victory tonight, we are victorious and we are ready to march on," Mr. Richards later added.

For his part, Mr. Osina declared victory even before Mr. Richards did.

"While we are still uncertain of the total numbers, when every vote is counted, we will be victorious," Mr. Osina told his supporters. "This was an honest, fair race and I would like to thank my opponents for everything they have done on behalf of the community."

The race grew heated when a fiery clergyman, Bishop Charles Norris, controversially called for several of the black candidates to step aside in the race so Mr. Osina, the only white and Jewish contender, would not win. The district, which includes an Orthodox Jewish enclave in Far Rockaway, is 68 percent black and Mr. Norris quite bluntly argued that Mr. Osina, a former staffer to Queens Assemblyman Phil Goldfeder, could not serve its needs. None heeded his call, however, and the district's Jewish community rallied around Mr. Osina in response. Their ambitious get-out-the-vote effort, which included a roving sound truck playing Hebrew-language songs on Mr. Osina's behalf, seemed to pay off, matching Mr. Richards's superior fundraising and bevy of labor endorsements.

An automatic recount is mandated by state law if the final margin is less than 0.5 percent of the total vote. As of this writing, that would mean approximately 41 votes, although the number is subject to change as absentee and affidavit ballots are tabulated, or if the occasionally unpredictable Board of Elections further adjusts the final number.

New York City politicos may remember a similarly heated situation last year when Brooklyn State Senate candidates Lew Fidler and David Storobin both declared victory in their own special election. In that race, after 22,000 votes cast and multiple months of counting and litigation, Mr. Storobin prevailed by a mere 13 votes. Time will tell if Mr. Osina and Mr. Richards face that level of drama, but regardless, whoever wins will have only a short time in office before having to face the voters again in the city's regularly scheduled September primary.

Additional reporting by Colin Campbell.

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.

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.”

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.

Mayor Bloomberg tours the damage in Breezy Point. (Photo: Getty)

At another press briefing at the city's Office of Emergency Management in Brooklyn this evening, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced the news that at least 18 New Yorkers have been killed by Hurricane Sandy's bombardment last night, a number that could still rise. The total increased from this morning, when Mr. Bloomberg confirmed 10 deaths.

"Unfortunately, altogether so far in the storm, all the places put together, we've had 18 fatalities citywide as a result of this storm," he said.

Despite the extensive damage in the Breezy Point neighborhood of Queens, however, Mr. Bloomberg said no deaths emerged from the devastating combination of fire and floods.

"On the Rockaway Peninsula, I walked through the part of Breezy Point that was absolutely devastated by the wind-fed fast-moving fires that took out more than 80 homes last night. To describe it as 'looking like pictures we've seen at the end of World War II' is not overstating it. The area was completely leveled," he said. "It's very sad they lost their homes, but the good news is there were no fatalities, thank God."

The scene from today's press conference.

Welcome to the Florida of Upper Manhattan and the Bronx.

State Senator Adriano Espaillat, who had originally conceded the race against Congressman Charlie Rangel last Tuesday, clearly isn't ready to go there just yet. At a packed press conference held in front of a senior center on 187th Street, Mr. Espaillat slammed the Board of Elections, lobbed allegations of voter suppression, and explained his plans going forward.

"Mayor Bloomberg said a couple days ago that this electoral process is easily corruptible, that, in fact, the Board of Elections is a board that the average New Yorker cannot trust," Mr. Espaillat declared. "I agree with him."

"Our country has to rely on an election process and an election system that is verifiable, that is transparent and brings about confidence to everybody," he continued. "We cannot have a Florida type situation in New York State, it's just impossible that in the northeast of our country, that we have a situation similar to what happened in Florida between Gore and Bush!"

Later this afternoon, his campaign will head to court to seek an injunction to allow more transparency in the tallying process. Describing the organization's secrecy as illegal, Mr. Espaillat vowed to have every vote counted (for every candidate in the race, he stressed).

"If we cannot get relief in the process, we will go to the courts, and we will go to the final, final round, to ensure every vote ... is counted, so that tomorrow, when the senior citizen or the young voter goes to the polls, they can be reassured that this democratic process works for them and not that it is rigged, or perhaps that there are backroom strategists put in place to prevent them from voting or to skew the results."

Mr. Espaillat cited a number of what he described as "irregularities" on Election Day, including an unusual lack of bilingual inspectors, the absence mailed notifications alerting voters to the new Election Day date this year, and Spanish language speakers being handed affidavit ballots instead of regular ones.

"I have family members that were prime voters that go out to vote every single year, and when they went to vote, they were told this year that their name was not the list," he said.

He also argued that the missing precincts came overwhelmingly from his base of support in the Latino communities of northern Manhattan and the Bronx, as opposed to the Harlem neighborhoods that favored Mr. Rangel.

"We had to beat up the Board of Elections to give us some level of answers, that 70 Electoral Districts came in at zero? That's totally unacceptable in New York State. I thought that stuff happened in Florida or Mississippi somewhere, but not here," he explained, adding later, "I believe it was 23 ED's that were reported as zero in the Bronx. There were 24 ED's right here in my original 72nd Assembly District where I represented for 13 years, 13 ... in the 71st. And only 7 in Harlem and East Harlem."

"I think that's highly irregular."

Lew Fidler and David Storobin (Photo: Facebook)

Republican David Storobin is currently on track to become a New York State Senator in the epic, never-ending special election to replace corrupt Senator -- and future inmate -- Carl Kruger. The votes, cast March 20th, have all been counted, but an automatic hand recount of all 20,000 ballots was triggered due to the closeness of the end count -- a lead by Mr. Storobin of 27 votes.

"So, they are 10% through with the first ever re canvass of paper ballots from the scanners," the Democratic candidate, Lew Fidler, wrote on Facebook last night, noting, however, that there is still some hope as the new voting machines did show variances with the original count even though the net margin did not change.

"While we still trail by 27 votes, there are discrepancies in the count so far. (The machines are therefore not perfect.)," he continued. "We are going to count all the votes and then the world will finally have the answer to the question that has burned since March 20th....who is the real Mayor of Mooseport?"

Because the legislative session ends in June, whoever the ultimate winner is will have limited time to actually legislate before facing reelection in a substantially different district. Thus, Mr. Storobin has been busy this week introducing himself to various community boards in southern Brooklyn, including the Boro Park-based CB12 last night and the Bay Ridge-based CB10 the evening prior (although the latter doesn't have much overlap with even the new district).

David Storobin (Photo: YouTube)

The March 20th special election for the State Senate in southeastern Brooklyn just got one big step closer to a resolution earlier today when over a hundred ballots that were alleged to be fraudulent by the Democratic candidate, Lew Fidler, were counted after a judge dismissed his lawsuit last week. The Republican candidate, David Storobin, is now 27 votes ahead.

However, New York State law mandates an automatic hand recount of all of the ballots counted in an election if the final margin is less than 0.5% of the total votes cast, and with over 20,000 ballots in this election, Mr. Storobin's margin is well, well within that threshold.

So, while Mr. Storobin currently holds the advantage, this election is still far from being over and either candidate has a plausible path to victory.

Ultimately, this elongated process has minimized some of the influence the eventual winner will yield. Unless Governor Cuomo declares an extended legislative session, there won't be a great number of votes either candidate would be able to cast in Albany before the Legislature adjourns. And, with the district in question being somewhat dismantled in redistricting, whoever wins would be running for reelection in a substantially different district without the typical benefits of incumbency.

Update: The official tally was 3 points more in favor of Mr. Storobin than the unofficial results, which had the candidate up 24.

David Storobin (Photo: Facebook)

As the first day of counting absentee votes in last week's special election to replace corrupt former State Senator Carl Kruger came to a close this evening, Republican candidate David Storobin led Democratic Lew Fidler by just 37 votes, a source familiar with the situation told The Politicker.

When the process convened for a lunch break earlier this afternoon, Mr. Storobin's lead had dropped from his Election Day total of 119 to 62.

Only 296 votes have been counted, about half of the 757 valid absentee votes when one takes into account that some valid votes were contested and placed aside for the moment. Additionally, hundreds more ballots initially ruled to be invalid are out there for both campaigns to contest, some of which are likely to be brought back into play.

The counting, which is organized by Assembly Districts overlapping with the State Senate seat in question, swung back and forth as it reaches turf favorable to each of the candidates, but has systemically favored Mr. Fidler thus far.

Bastions of support for both candidates remain to be counted, notably a heavily Orthodox Jewish Assembly District favorable to Mr. Storobin and an Assembly District directly overlapping with Mr. Fidler's current City Council district.

Regardless, the tallying looks like it's currently on track to be under the 110 vote margin threshold necessary to trigger an automatic hand recount of all of the ballots in this extremely close election.