After facing obstacles, DiNapoli relishes victory

On Wednesday, Thomas DiNapoli finally got his car inspected. A few sleepless hours after he declared victory in a close race for state comptroller, the 56-year-old incumbent was busy catching up with some pressing everyday matters, though he had yet to get some rest.

"I never really went to bed last night," DiNapoli laughed during a cell phone conversation, with the noise from the car inspection shop in Nassau County in the background. Getting an updated sticker on his Chevy Malibu was one of those little things that had to wait while DiNapoli faced one of the greatest challenges of his political career.

Sometime after 1 Wednesday morning, DiNapoli announced he'd won his first statewide race, against Republican Harry Wilson, before the few well-wishers remaining at the Sheraton New York Hotel, the state Democratic Party's headquarters on Election Night. Hours earlier, other Democrats with a wider margin of victory, including Gov.-elect Andrew Cuomo, had enjoyed cheers from a large crowd. DiNapoli beat Wilson by a 3 percent margin.

Wilson, 39, a businessman and political newcomer who poured nearly $3 million into his own race, conceded around 9 a.m. Wednesday. "We fell just a little bit short," Wilson said.

No Democrat's victory seemed sweeter than DiNapoli's. The former Long Island state assemblyman - appointed to the comptroller job in 2007 after Alan Hevesi, a Democrat, resigned amid scandal - overcame the most formidable challenge by a Republican in any of the statewide races this year.

DiNapoli also won even though he was snubbed by the head of the ticket, Gov.-elect Andrew Cuomo, who refused to endorse him.

Cuomo's camp said that given the ongoing investigation into the state's pension fund - which resulted in Hevesi's recent guilty plea; DiNapoli was cleared of any wrongdoing - it would have been inappropriate to endorse him in the race.

In an interview, DiNapoli, a close ally of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan), said the lack of a Cuomo endorsement underlined his own independence in overseeing the state's $124-billion common pension fund.

"I'm not looking to be the governor's comptroller but to be the people's comptroller," DiNapoli said. "I've worked diligently to clean up the comptroller's office after what was left by my predecessor."