State Senator Eric Schneiderman cruised to victory in the State Attorney General race, while Thomas DiNapoli declared victory as the state’s top fiscal watchdog.
In the closely watched race for State Attorney General, State Senator Eric Schneiderman defeated Republican Dan Donovan with over 55 percent of the votes. Schneiderman thanked his supporters for sending him back to Albany, but this time as the state’s top lawyer.
“I’m ready to stand up against powerful forces who seek to divide us, powerful forces who seek to denigrate others, powerful forces who seek to deny some New Yorkers equal justice under law, I’m ready to go,” said Schneiderman, a 12-year State Senator from Manhattan.
With 97 percent of the votes counted, Schneiderman received 55.11 percent of the votes, edging Staten Island District Attorney Donovan who had received 43.54 percent of the votes. Liberal candidate Carl Person and Freedom Party candidate Ramon Jimenez both received less than one percent of the votes.
In a tight race for Comptroller, Thomas DiNapoli pulled off a narrow victory with about 97 percent of the votes counted. DiNapoli got nearly 50 percent of the votes, while former hedge fund manager Harry Wilson got a little more than 47 percent of the votes. The two other challengers looking to replace current Attorney General Andrew Cuomo got a total of three percent.
“This is a great honor for me to be the people’s choice for New York State Comptroller,” said DiNapoli, who took the post as Comptroller after Alan Hevesi resigned amid criminal charges of misusing his office. “I think our race is a little bit of lesson, that it’s not always about the polls, or the pundits, or the papers for that matter. And, that it is about the people.”
On Wednesday morning, Wilson conceded the race.
“I am enormously proud of the substantive race we ran, but, at the end of the day, we fell just a little bit short,” Wilson said. “We take enormous solace in the knowledge that we left not a single stone unturned in our effort. I am fortunate to have the best family and friends a man could ask for, and I cannot thank enough the 1.8 million New Yorkers across the political spectrum who responded to my call for fiscal accountability in Albany.”
