JANISON: Political landscape for Cuomo same as dad's in 1983

For New York, the suspense came down to this: Whether voters would break the Democratic monopoly on statewide elected posts, returning us to more of a two-party terrain.

The governorship will remain in the hands of the state's biggest party, as will both U.S. Senate seats. But through Election Day, the real question was whether the comptroller's office or attorney general's office or both would return to Republican hands. And, more important, the fate of the State Senate hung in the balance.

Barring a total GOP disappointment, the partisan landscape that greets Gov.-elect Andrew Cuomo's "new New York" might look like the one that greeted Gov. Mario Cuomo's 1983 inauguration.

Andrew Cuomo could negotiate budgets and legislation with a Democratic-controlled Assembly and a Republican-run Senate as did Mario Cuomo.

The new Governor Cuomo may or may not have a Republican comptroller, as the elder ex-governor did.

The attorney general on the elder Cuomo's arrival was a Democrat, as will be the new one, Eric Schneiderman. But whatever the final party mix proves to be, it looked as if the Democrats as a group were stretched too thin to sustain their total dominance.

GOP comptroller candidate Harry Wilson, at campaign stops, worked a nonpartisan message that stressed his fiscal experience. He was on the Republican line with Carl Paladino for governor; on the Independence line with Cuomo.

Wilson said he looked forward to "using the full powers of the office, and the full powers of my background . . . to develop a turnaround plan for the state in conjunction with the governor and the legislature."

The 2008 election, buoyed by turnout for President Barack Obama, had ousted the last bastion of GOP power, as State Senate Democrats came away with a tentative and chaotic 32-30 majority, the first in four decades.

Also, the Republican presence in the U.S. House delegation from the state had dropped to four of 29 seats statewide. In 1983, the GOP had 13 of 34 seats.

Three incumbents - Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, and Gov. David A. Paterson - have been serving in posts to which they were not elected. The sensational explosions of Alan Hevesi and Eliot Spitzer gave way to DiNapoli and Paterson.

This, and the crises and scandals that marred the past four years, gave tremendous opportunity to Republicans.

This being a "blue" state, you'd think "checks and balances" would have to be a more realistic rationale for Republican candidates than "take it back."

But Susan Del Percio, a New York City-based Republican consultant, had little use for the concept that people are looking for a "balance."

"I think people are tired of the current leadership, meaning the Democrats," she said. "It's not about checks and balances as much as people in office are not getting the job done."