The 2006 elections saw an increase in Democratic power in the United States government, both on a local and national scale.
In the 21st District (where RPI is located), the race for the House ended in a 78 to 22 percent win of incumbent Michael McNulty (D) over Warren Redlich (R), which was not much of a surprise to McNulty’s constituency. The race that caught everyone’s attention was that of New York’s 20th District, in which John Sweeney (R) ran a close race against Kristen Gillibrand (D). The decision was made final by Sweeney’s concession to Gillibrand, after a very evenly matched race.
Most of the other New York State elections were more predictable and results for each race were landslides for the Democrats.
The NY Assembly for the 106th District, which includes RPI, resulted in a win of Ronald Canestrari (D) over Kandi Terry (R) in a 71 to 27 percent breakdown of the votes.
The New York State Attorney General race went to Andrew Cuomo (D) over Jeanine Pirro (R) 58 to 40 percent. Cuomo ran on the promise to continue Elliot Spitzer’s work of fighting corruption in government.
Spitzer (D) moved to take over the position of New York State Governor in a 69 to 29 percent win over John Faso (R), which was not a surprise. Similarily, the NY senate race went to Hillary Clinton (D) over John Spencer (R) by a 36 percent margin.
The Democratic Party took everything even down to the New York comptroller position. Alan Hevesi (D) triumphed over Christopher Callaghan (R) in 63 to 37 percent.
Two Justices from the District Three Supreme Court in the Capital Area were also up for election. With a maximum of two winners, Karen Peter (D) and Guss Devine (D) took the majority with 52 and 47 percent of the votes, respectively, over Elon Harpaz of the Working Families party.
On a national level, the Democrats made sizeable gains. The House was overtaken by the Democratic Party for the first time since 1994. Even several Republican incumbents were pushed out of the House.
The Senate on a national level was much harder to predict and was filled with much closer races. The borderline states for the Senate race turned out to be Montana and Virginia, each being too close to call prematurely, but each being critical in determining which party would take control of the Senate.
By the time the vote came down to these states, the GOP needed only one more seat to retain the Senate, while if both the seats went to the Democrats, they would control the Senate.
