New York 2010 Election Results

New York held its general election on November 2, 2010, deciding 212 legislative seats and 4 statewide offices led by the governorship. Control shifted: the Senate moved from a 32-30 Democratic majority to a 32-30 Republican majority.

Highlights

• Andrew Cuomo (D) won the governorship but inherited a divided legislature, because Republicans retook the state Senate after two years of Democratic control. When the Senate convened in January, Dean Skelos (R) was elected Temporary President and majority leader.
• A handful of seats decided the majority. The last was Long Island's Senate District 7, which was not settled until December, when a state judge certified the result that gave the GOP its 32nd seat:
  • Jack Martins (R) unseated Craig M. Johnson (D) in Senate District 7 by about 450 votes, and Lee Zeldin (R) ousted Brian X. Foley (D) in Senate District 3 by about 14 points.
  • Upstate, Patricia Ritchie (R) beat Darrel J. Aubertine (D) in Senate District 48, and Mark J. Grisanti (R) beat Antoine M. Thompson (D) in Buffalo's Senate District 60 by about 520 votes.
  • Democrats picked up two seats in return: Tony Avella (D) defeated Frank Padavan (R), who had served since 1973, in Senate District 11, and David Carlucci (D) won the open Senate District 38.
• Democrats kept a 99-51 Assembly majority but, for the first time since 2002, fell below the veto-proof two-thirds they had long held. The chamber's closest race was one of the seats that cost them: Thomas J. Kirwan (R) unseated Frank Skartados (D) by 15 votes in Assembly District 100. The result was so slow to certify that the Assembly seated Kirwan by resolution in late February 2011.
• Every statewide office stayed Democratic. Cuomo coasted past Carl Paladino (R), a Tea Party-aligned developer, by about 29 points to succeed Gov. David Paterson, who did not seek a full term. Eric Schneiderman (D) beat Dan Donovan (R) by about 13 points for the open attorney general's office. The closest was comptroller. Thomas DiNapoli (D), chosen by legislators in 2007 after Alan Hevesi left in a scandal, held off Harry Wilson (R) by about 4.5 points.
• Overall, 16 legislative seats changed party, most of them toward Republicans. November also cost 13 incumbents their seats, including three who were left on the ballot only on a minor-party line. One was William T. Stachowski (I), who had lost the Democratic primary to Timothy M. Kennedy (D), the eventual winner of Senate District 58. Beyond the seats that changed hands or cost an incumbent, 4 other races finished inside two points, including Robert J. Castelli (R) holding Assembly District 89 by about 100 votes and Suzi Oppenheimer (D) holding Senate District 37 by about 730.

Legislature

• Assembly (150 seats): 107 D, 42 R, 1 other or vacant before the election, 99 D, 51 R after; control stayed with Democrats.
• Senate (62 seats): 32 D, 29 R, 1 other or vacant before the election, 30 D, 32 R after; control moved from Democrats to Republicans.

Statewide races

Legislative races