(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."

(Photo: YouTube)

A number of key New York congressional seats were at stake election day last week. When all the votes were counted, though there were over a half-dozen competitive races only three districts changed partisan hands. One of those belonged to Hudson Valley Rep. Nan Hayworth, a freshman Republican who came in on the Tea Party wave two years ago and narrowly lost her seat this time around to Democratic attorney Sean Patrick Maloney. On Friday, Ms. Hayworth went on Richard French Live to look back on her unsuccessful election, as well as the broader national race.

"Look, Hurricane Sandy did have an effect on the public discourse," she contended. "There are issues of momentum that affected races like mine. The President had a substantial percentage margin over Governor Romney and we had known if there were a really large margin for the president, above say 5 points, that that would be very hard for us to overcome structurally in the new district that I was running in."

Another problem, Ms. Hayorth said, was the press' framing of the campaign. “I'm not blaming the media, but the media did tend to take up the president's message more vigorously than Governor Romney's message," she argued. "But then again, it's incumbent upon those of us who are in this contest to recognize those factors and apply resources accordingly."

Overall, the congresswoman sounded fairly remorseful about returning to private life.

"I loved this job and I cherished it and it was a great honor," she said. "So my most fervent wish was that I could continue to serve, or I wouldn't have run. But I'm confident I'll find other ways to be useful. It's a tough life."

Watch below:

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.

Mitt Romney, happy. (Photo: Getty)

Mitt Romney bested Rick Santorum in a pair Republican presidential primaries tonight--a widely expected win in Arizona and a close, crucial victory in Michigan. With his wins tonight, Mr. Romney built on his delegate lead and stopped the momentum Mr. Santorum was beginning to enjoy after a trio of victories in Minnesota, Missouri and Colorado earlier this month. Mr. Romney has a personal history in Michigan. His father served as governor there from 1963 until 1969. Despite Mr. Romney's ties to the Wolverine State, the race became close as Mr. Santorum surged in the polls. Both candidates made a major push to win Michigan complete with vicious ads and accusations of dirty politics.

Mr. Santorum's chances of earning the Republican nomination may have suffered a setback, but his campaign likely isn't giving up. Earlier this morning, Mr. Santorum's campaign manager, Michael Biundo, wrote a post on his Facebook page declaring his candidate the real winner of Michigan primary regardless of the outcome.

"No matter what happens here on election day. Rick Santorum has already won Mitts home state of Michigan by making him out spend us at least five to one in what should have been a easy victory for him," Mr. Biundo wrote.

The next vote coming up before next week's "Super Tuesday" flood of states is Washington, which votes this Saturday.