Judge gives contested State Senate race to GOP

ALBANY -- A judge yesterday gave a long-disputed victory to a Republican in an upstate Senate race, strengthening a bipartisan coalition that will run the chamber beginning Jan. 1.

The decision in the 46th District, pending an appeal, gives Republicans a working majority of 32 votes, including Democratic Sen.-elect Simcha Felder. The Brooklyn Democrat has said he will vote with the GOP.

Yesterday's decision by a state Supreme Court judge in Montgomery County made George Amedore of Schenectady County the senator-elect for the 46th, which winds from Montgomery to Ulster County. If the decision holds, Amedore will have won by 39 votes out of more than 120,000 votes cast in the new district.

But Democrats aren't conceding. Gary Ginsburg, spokesman for Cecilia Tkaczyk, said there would be further court appeals.

"There are still hundreds of outstanding objections that have to be ruled on by the Appellate Court. These ballots include votes cast by election inspectors that voted early at the direction of both Republican and Democratic election commissioners and hundreds of affidavit ballots that were thrown out because of minor errors," he said.

The new district was created by Senate Republicans as a linchpin to maintaining their majority there in the Democrat-dominated state. The district includes the base voters for Amedore, a state Assemblyman since 2007.

A week ago, when two seats from the Nov. 6 elections were still undecided and both parties angling for control, Republicans entered an unprecedented bipartisan coalition with five breakaway Democrats led by Sen. Jeffrey Klein.

Yesterday, that coalition held despite the Republicans' apparent newfound power.

"We are committed to moving forward as part of a bipartisan coalition," said Scott Rief, Republican spokesman.

Still, the Republicans are now on far stronger ground. Without the five rogue Democrats, the Republican conference and Felder will have the 32 votes needed to bring legislation to the floor, or block it, and to pass bills into laws.

Last week, the other race too close to call on election night went to the Democrats' Terry Gipson.