Paladino defeats Lazio; Rice leads opponents

Carl Paladino defeated Rick Lazio in the Republican primary election, while Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice was the leader of the pack in the Democratic primary for state Attorney General.

With 41% of the precincts reporting, Paladino had a comfortable lead of 78,000 votes over Lazio. Meanwhile, Rice led a pack of five candidates with 37% of the vote. Her closest challengers, Eric Schneiderman and Sean Coffey, had approximately a quarter of the vote each.

In other statewide races, incumbent Kirsten Gillibrand was called as the winner in her race for the U.S. Senate against Gail Goode, with over 77% of the vote.

The Republican vote for both Senate seats was too close to call with less than 35% of the vote counted. Jay Townsend led Gary Berntsen by 20,000 votes. The winner will face incumbent Chuck Schumer.

The GOP primary for Gillibrand's seat is hotly disputed by Joseph DIoGuardi and David Malpass, with less than 3,000 votes separating both candidates.

In Suffolk's 1st district race for U.S. Congress, Randy Alschuler beat George Demos and Chris Cox in the GOP primary. He will face incumbent TIm Bishop in November.

Both congressmen Peter King and Gary Ackerman coasted to easy victories in their primaries and will face opponents in November.

Ackerman's GOP opponent has yet to be determined, but James Milano led Elizabeth Berney in the Republican primary for the 5th district seat.