Free Republic

ALBANY — The state Senate will return to Republican control in January. A judge on Saturday certified a result that showed a Long Island Republican won a key seat in the Nov. 2 election, meaning the GOP will have at least a 32-30 edge over Democrats when the Senate’s new session starts next month. (A pending recount in Westchester County could give the GOP a 33-29 majority.) The result gives Republicans their only power base in a state where Democrats hold the Assembly and the three statewide offices: governor, comptroller and attorney general. The final tally in the Long Island...

I'll post more on this when I have it, but two sources who are familiar with the recanvassing of the voting machines in NY-1 tell me that GOPer Randy Altschuler, who'd been down several thousand votes to Democratic Rep. Tim Bishop is now up between 300 and 400 with the recanvass completed. There's over 9,000 absentee ballots to be counted starting next week, but the Republican had been down by 3,400. UPDATE: Altschuler spokesman Rob Ryan says the number is 392 and that it was the number their campaign lawyer received from the Board of Elections.

Rangel won another term by a wide margin Tuesday despite lingering concerns over ethics allegationsBy Sarah Darville and Leah Greenbaum Published November 3, 2010 Staffers purchased a dozen bottles of champagne weeks ago to celebrate Representative Charles Rangel’s victory Tuesday night. But the short celebration at the Martin Luther King Jr. Democratic Club on 128th Street and Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard did not pass without mention of the 40-year incumbent’s upcoming public trial for ethics charges. Rangel won another term by a wide margin Tuesday despite lingering concerns over ethics allegations related to failing to pay income taxes and not...

This early word from inside the campaign Voter turnout is high everywhere but Manhattan area.. Sufflok county 3 to 1 Repub over Dem.. Great for us.. Things look good but I am cautiously optimistic

Via Capital Tonight, meet New York Assemblyman — and Democrat — Bob Reilly. If you thought the last few months of the Dems’ national campaign were tone-deaf, wait until you see ol’ Bob here in action. Obama doesn’t have a messaging problem; this guy has a messaging problem. There’s nothing I can say to prepare you for it, except that you’ll run the gamut of emotions. First, shock; then disgust at Reilly; then anger at yourself for finding the absurdity of it funny; then hearty laughter at just how stupid Democrats can be.

the two iffiest offices, ones that could go either way, are the race for New York Attorney General and New York State Comptroller. The attorney general contest is between Manhattan resident and Democratic state Sen. Eric Schneiderman and Staten Island District Attorney Dan Donovan. snip although the chances of Gillibrand’s opponent, Joe DioGuardi, catching fire are still a possibility, albeit a long shot. snip The race for Attorney General is a lot more problematic for the Democrats. First of all, Schneiderman, never known as Mr. Personality among his colleagues in the state Senate, is not thought to be a favorite...

[...] I’ve since been told the case hasn’t yet been decided, and won’t be until after Nov. 2. Instead, the judge declined to give the WFP the injunction it sought. The party is considering an appeal. This is almost of bad as a loss, since the current policy is detrimental to the minor parties. As things stand, voters who select the same candidate on two different lines on the paper ballots used by the new voting machine system will see their vote counted for the first party that appears on the ballot. That is, of course, very bad for the...

New York’s 20th congressional district has a problem. It’s an R+2 district, one that Bush carried 54 percent to 46 percent in 2004, and one that Obama carried by 3 percent, a classic swing district. But their Democratic congressman, Scott Murphy, is one of those so-called “moderate Democrats” who are never moderate when it really counts. He voted for Obamacare, and staunchly opposes repeal. He voted against a ban on federally funded abortions. He voted for cap-and-trade. Murphy likes to talk a lot about his strong views on pay-as-you-go, but he voted to raise the debt ceiling. He voted for...

What a difference a day makes. A new Siena College poll released Thursday shows Andrew Cuomo with a commanding lead in the governor's race over maverick GOP opponent Carl Paladino a day after a separate poll claimed the race had narrowed dramatically. Cuomo leads Paladino by a 57% to 24% margin among registered voters, with Conservative party candidate Rick Lazio bringing up the rear at 8%. The poll is a marked difference than a Quinnipiac survey of likely voters released Wednesday that seemed to shake up the race. That poll had Cuomo ahead of Paladino by a slim 49% to...

New York voters will, unusually, elect 2 United States Senators in 2010. In the Special Election to fill the final 2 years of Hillary Rodham Clinton's term, incumbent Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand and former Congressman Republican Joe DioGuardi today finish effectively even, Gillibrand's nominal 1-point lead being within the survey's theoretical margin of sampling error.

SCHODACK -- Rudy Giuliani thinks Chris Gibson's race for Congress isn't so much about his experience as an Army colonel, or about the voting record of that other guy currently representing the district. Instead, the former New York City mayor said it's about stopping House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as she moves the country toward a "European-style social democracy." "I'm not really campaigning against the current congressman -- who doesn't have my views on government, doesn't have my views on where the economy should go," Giuliani said Wednesday morning. "Let's put it this way: a vote against Chris is a vote...

Tea party may stop backing Hoffman 23RD DISTRICT RACE: Upstate group may now support Doheny By JUDE SEYMOUR TIMES STAFF WRITER SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2010 One hundred tea partiers made Douglas L. Hoffman's Republican candidacy possible. Now 1,000 are considering whether their group should help get his opponent elected in the 23rd Congressional District. Members of the Upstate New York Tea Party, Plattsburgh, overwhelmingly supported Mr. Hoffman over fellow Republican Matthew A. Doheny during a May poll. But with Mr. Doheny holding a 582-vote lead with 1,969 absentee ballots to be counted in the GOP primary, Chairman Mark L. Barie...

This is one aspect of yesterday's results I dont see any one talking about Even Karl Rove was backed into a corner and does not know how to handle it NO ONE predicted these results. Usually after the election we look at the pollsters to see who was closest- no one was even close. In New York the polls had Carl Paladino tied with Lazio on Monday- on Tuesday Paladino beat him by OVER 40 PERCENT! 72% to 27% That’s how bad these polls were.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Ran into Gail Goode — who is challenging Kirsten Gillibrand for her Senate seat in the Democratic primary — in Congress Park Friday afternoon. She is in town for the weekend and will be shaking hands at the Tom Petty concert Friday and at the Travers Saturday. "I think it's very important that people know that 45,000 people put me on the ballot," she said, contrasting that with the "one person" — Gov. David Paterson — who put Gillibrand in her seat to replace Hillary Clinton. "I think it's very important for New Yorkers to know that...

English novelist George Eliot once penned the following: "Iteration, like friction, is likely to generate heat instead of progress." Albert Einstein famously quipped, "insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."  There are more than a few famous quotes on the destructive nature inherent in the repetition of foolish behavior. What is to be said for the way in which the Republican Party is actively pursuing a repeat of last November's special election for NY's 23rd Congressional District? If you were outraged at Dede Scozzafava, wait until you see their latest candidate, Matt Doheny. It...

GOSHEN — Rick Lazio seems like he's always blasting the Islamic center proposed near Ground Zero. Lazio, the Republican candidate for governor, rails against the project on a TV commercial — over images of a skeletal World Trade Center. His website challenges Democratic opponent Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to investigate the finances behind the project and debate it. Lazio — down some 30 points in the polls and $23 million in campaign money — has made the issue such a big deal, a French TV reporter came to Goshen Wednesday to ask him about it at a campaign stop. So...

It's less than a month before Primary Day in New York and GOP conven tion-endorsed gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio is rapidly losing ground to challenger Carl Paladino of Buffalo. According to the latest Siena College poll, Lazio's 20-point lead over the gadfly businessman, registered a month ago, has shrunk to 13 points, 43-30. And in recent days Paladino has been endorsed by several upstate GOP county chairmen and such elected officials as Assemblywoman Jane Corwin of Nia- gara. Yes, there's a regional element to some of this -- Paladino is something of a hero in the Buffalo area -- but...

Brooklyn Councilman Charles Barron said Monday his new minority-led Freedom Party got enough signatures to get on the statewide ballot against the Democrats' all-white ticket."No longer are we going to allow the Democrats to take the black vote for granted," Barron said at a rally on the steps of Brooklyn Borough Hall, in front of stacks of petitions with what he said were 43,500 signatures needed to gain entry on the ballot this fall."This party is a black- and Latino-led party that is open up to everybody," said Barron. "If we take care of blacks and Latinos, the state...

GOP Faces Possible NY 23 Repeat June 21, 2010 3:09 PM By Reid Wilson GOPers stung by a divisive intra-party battle last fall face the prospect of a split party, once again, in the race for an upstate NY House seat that should favor the minority. Last Nov., Rep. Bill Owens (D) won Army Sec. John McHugh's seat with just 48.3% of the vote. Still, it was enough to win after Assemb. Dede Scozzafava (R) and accountant Doug Hoffman, running on the Conservative Party line, split the GOP vote. After Hoffman attacked Scozzafava's moderate -- GOPers backing Hoffman labeled her...

- New York Republicans have given Bruce Blakeman the party's official designation to take on Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. The three-day GOP convention came to a fractious end with the Republican delegates split on their choice of Senate candidate. Bruce Blakeman is the former presiding officer of the Nassau County Legislature. He won the endorsement over David Malpass, who earned enough support at Thursday's convention to run in a September 14th GOP primary. Malpass is a former Bear Stearns chief economist. A third candidate, former congressman Joe DioGuardi, didn't get enough votes for a primary line. But he is vowing...