Sorry for the delay folks. It was a rather late night/early morning. My co-anchor, Roma Torre, and I didn’t get off the desk last night until close to 2 a.m. – after Democratic state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli delivered his victory speech.

It was a big night for New York Democrats, who provided a bright spot of success in a nation that saw big GOP gains. The Dems swept the statewide races, picking up the offices of governor, LG, both US Senate seats, attorney general and comptroller (it appears).

As for the congressional races, it looks like the GOP picked up five – and possibly six – seats in Democrat-dominated New York, which helped the party re-gain control of the House. They are:

NY-13 Michael Grimm beats Rep. Michael McMahon.
NY-19 Nan Hayworth beats Rep. John Hall.
NY-20 Chris Gibson beats Rep. Scott Murphy.
NY-24 Richard Hanna beats Rep. Michael Arcuri.
NY-29 Tom Reed defeats Democrat Matt Zeller to win an open seat that used to belong to Democratic former Rep. Eric Massa.
NY-25 Rep. Dan Maffei leads Mary Ann Buerkle by just 5,000 votes. (NOTE: I’m told this race has tightened further, with only several hundred votes separating the two candidates, and about 7,500 paper ballots still out).

The state Senate is still too close to call. The Democrats’ best hope is 32-30 to retain the majority. The GOP’s best is 33-29 to regain control. The rundown of what we know:

Dem gain – SD 11 Former NYC Councilman Tony Avella (Dem) beats GOP Sen. Frank Padavan.
Dem gain – SD 38 Clarkstown Clerk David Carlucci (Dem) defeats GOP Rockland County Executive Scott Vanderhoef for the seat left vacate by the death of GOP Sen. Thomas Morahan.
GOP gain – SD 3 Lee Zeldin (GOP) beats Democratic Sen. Brian Foley.
GOP gain – SD 48 Patricia Ritchie (GOP) beats Democratic Sen. Darrel Aubertine.
*Dem undecided – SD 7 Jack Martins (GOP) leads Democratic Sen. Craig Johnson by 415 votes.
*Dem undecided – SD 37 Democratic Sen. Suzi Oppenheimer (Dem) leads Republican Bob Cohen by 180 with 80 percent of precincts reporting.

UPDATE1: SD 60 Democratic Sen. Antoine Thompson (Dem) TRAILS Mark Grisanti by about 350 votes with two crucial EDs reporting; Thompson hasn’t yet conceded…according to SRCC spokesman Scott Reif, the GOP “appears to have won at least 32 seats, possibly 33, depending on the outcome of the Cohen-Oppenheimer race.”

UPDATEs: Grisanti is NOT a Republican. In fact, he’s a Democrat, and he failed in a 2008 primary challenge to Thompson, but ran this year on the GOP, Independence and Conservative lines. I asked Reif if Grisanti has promised to conference with the Republicans if he wins. Reif said he will be back to me.

However, DSCC spokesman Austin Shafran sent the following statement this morning:

“After three of our challengers claimed significant victories, we remain optimistic, but there are still thousands of votes to be counted and every vote counts.”

There were a number of hard-fought races in the state Assembly. DACC dumped a considerable wad of cash into a number of races, and was playing in more districts than I can recall ever seeing before.

But this all occurred largely under the radar screen due to the higher-stakes races at the top of the ticket. It was assumed Speaker Sheldon Silver would not likely lose enough seats to lose his considerable edge over the GOP. There were some Democratic losses, however.

The GOP gained at least 7, and perhaps as many as 10 seats (currently there are 108 under Democratic control, and 99 is the magic number for Minority Leader Brian Kolb as it robs Silver of his veto-proof majority. The rundown:

AD 5 Graf wins open (Fields).
AD 60 Malliotakis beats Hyer-Spencer.
AD 108 McLaughlin beats Gordon.
AD 121 Miller beats Stirpe (down 840 votes).
AD 135 Johns beats Koon.
AD 138 Ceretto wins open (DelMonte).
AD 150 Goodell wins open (Parment).
*AD 1 Losquadro (GOP) leads Alessi by 40 votes
*AD 100 Skartados (Dem) leads Kirwan by 144 votes.
*AD 109 Reilly (Dem) leads Whalen by 577 votes.

UPDATE2: One possible bright spot for the Assembly Dems: The 89th AD, which was tied last night.

However, in the 96th AD, Republican (fixed) incumbent Nancy Calhoun appeared to have squeaked through to victory by some 400 votes.

This overview comes courtesy of Sherman Jewett, a former DACC staffer and current consultant. He’s managing partner of a political mail and media firm called Blue & Read.

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