It has been nearly three weeks since election day and one State Senate race is still not decided. Both Jim Gennaro and longtime Senator Frank Padavan are working hard to get their candidate to win, not just up until election day but even now. The disappointing news for Gennaro is that not many of the paper ballots counted thus far have helped him in closing the gap.
From The Daily Politics:
As of last night, 692 votes separated Padavan from his Democratic challenger, Councilman Jim Gennaro, according to someone involved in the recount process.
That's still slightly less than the 723-vote lead Padavan had on election night, but more than his low of 474, which caused quite a bit of glee in the Senate Democrats camp - so much so that Gennaro consultant, Evan Stavisky, delcared that the GOP senator's was plummeting "faster than the Dow under George Bush."
As of this moment, it appears Stavisky might have spoken too soon. The Republicans are again feeling confident that Padavan will retain his seat, which would be a blow to Senate Minority Leader Malcolm Smith has he tries to reach the magic 32 number that will land him the majority leader's post.
About 1,600 paper ballots remain to be counted, down from about 8,000. The remaining ballots are form the 26th, 27th, 29th and 33rd ADs, at least two of which are considered by the Republicans to be strong for Padavan.
It's still possible that there will be a legal challenge filed by the Democrats in response to what they allege is an effort by the Republicans to disenfranchise Hispanic and Asian voters.
Liz actually may be speaking too soon as well. The only challenges in this post-election contest are coming from the Republicans who are trying to disqualify hundreds of ballots that have been going for Gennaro, predominantly those cast by Hispanic and Asian voters. They'll be in court alright, but to make sure all eligible voters have their ballots count, not the other way around. Not until the counting is finished can the challenged ballots be added to the tally, so let's just wait until the entire process is finished before we call the race.
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