It’s now official: Cecelia Tkaczyk (a Democrat) is our new NY state senator. By 18 votes (with one more to be counted). Over 126,000 votes were cast.
It was a wild election. The senate district was a new one, and was designed so that assemblyman George Amadore could be in the Senate. When election day was over, Tkaczyk held a 129-vote lead. Absentee ballots went Amadore’s way, and he led by 37 votes and the results were declared official.
But, some ballots were challenged and that ended up in the courts. On Friday, the ruling came down to count the challenged ballots (most of which were challenged by Amadore) and Tkaczyk came out ahead.
In theory, this change should have changed the majority party of the state senate, but the NYS senate being what it is (i.e., a madhouse that makes Congress look like a paragon of efficiency and good government), five Democrats are caucusing with the Republicans, giving them the power.
Amedore was seated as a senator a few weeks ago and now has the honor of being the shortest serving senator in modern NY history.