New York is a hopelessly liberal state.
It sure feels that way this morning.
As bad as the results of the State Wide elections ( excluding Joe DioGuardi losing. ) and the Congressional Races on Long Island ( except Peter King maintaining his seat ) and Queens, for me the most disappointing result in the NY Metro Area last night is long time State Senator Frank Padavan lost his race to Tony Avella in the 11th State Senate District. This district is in much of Northeast Queens.
I campaigned for a number of Republican Candidates in Nassau Co. and in Northern Queens. One of them was Frank Padavan, who is the definition of class. I helped him give out campaign literature at the Auburndale LIRR Station a week ago today. The day before that, I gave out campaign literature for Frank Padavan on my own at the Little Neck Train Station, while also giving out stuff for 5th Congressional District candidate Dr. James Milano and 26th State Assembly District candidate Vince Tabone. Tragically, all 3 ended up losing their races.
The defeat of Frank Padavan could have major negative ramifications. Two in particular come to mind:
1) With 3 State Senate Races still hanging in the balance, the Republicans might not gain control of the State Senate. With the re-districting process occuring in 2011, Democrat Control in all branches in Albany would likely mean new districts that will be heavily in favor of the Democrat Party.
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2) Frank Padavan is one of the leaders in the State Senate against same sex marriage. I'm very concerned about what could happen now that Padavan's long time stay in the State Senate is coming to an end.
Last night, I had the opportunity to make a number of stops, including to campaign polling places, the hotel room the Republican leaders in Great Neck were adding up the vote totals from the various polling places in Great Neck, 3 election night parties, and also visited Frank Padavan's headquarters on Bell Blvd. in Bayside. It was quite an experience for me. But the results in all the races I was involved with, with the possible exception of Jack Martins winning his 7th District State Senate Race , didn't turn out well at all .