What A Night It Had Been

Editor's Note: The times, percentage points, and number of precincts listed are estimates based on the writer's recollection of the evening.

What an insane night it was last night. Here is my story.

My evening did not get interesting until 9pm last night when my class was dismissed. I took the Ram Van down to Lincoln Center. I was told the night before that the Eric Schneiderman and Carolyn Maloney parties would both be at the Grand Hyatt.

On the ride down to Lincoln Center, I was anxiously checking my Twitter feeds for results (Twitter, I find, is one of the best and fastest source available for breaking news). The first surprise of the night came in: Christine O'Donnell, a Tea Party and Sarah Palin-backed Republican, beat moderate Republican Congressman Mike Castle in the Delaware Republican primary. For a candidate of whom I didn't even know until two weeks ago, I was amazed. It was obvious to everyone that the Democrats had just won the Senate seat previously held by Joe Biden. Within minutes, the story on Twitter changed to how Delaware Attorney General, Beau Biden (son of the Vice President) must have been feeling at that moment since he chose not to run for that Senate seat.

I asked a friend for confirmation that the Schneiderman party would be at the Hyatt. I was told it would be, but my friend said that she was at the primary election night party for Assemblyman Jonathan Bing. I responded that I wanted to be at the party with all of the cool kids.

After getting to Lincoln Center, I hailed a cab and I was taken cross-town

By 10 PM, there were some early reportings on NY1. Tea Party-backed Carl Paladino, with about 1% of the precincts reporting, already had a sizable margin of about 35 points over the establishment-backed candidate Rick Lazio. As these numbers showed up on the screen, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer walked past me. Stringer has had a few not-so-nice words to say about Paladino (see: http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2010/08/manhattan-bp-scott-stringer-ca.html and http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2010/09/manhattan-bp-scott-stringer-ca-1.html). I found the timing of this scene to be interesting.

The races we all were watching were the 14th Congressional District (Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney versus Reshma Saujani -we cared about the margin of victory; Maloney won with 81% of the vote), the 33rd State Senate District (Gustavo Rivera versus Pedro Espada), and the 39th Assembly District (Francisco Moya versus Hiram Monserrate).

With the early sets of returns, Rivera was leading Espada by about 30 points. Still, there were allegations of dirty tacits by the Espada camp (see: http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2010/09/gustavo-rivera-accuses-team-pe.html). Meanwhile, Monserrate, in the course of 20 minutes, at one point in the evening, went from being 30 points down, to up 30, and down 30 again over Moya.

Of course, the race we all were watching was Attorney General. Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice was taking an early lead of about 10 points over Manhattan State Senator Eric Schniderman with Sean Coffey in 3rd place by only a few percentage points.

By 10:30, it was becoming obvious that Carl Paladino was about to win the Republican Party nomination for Governor. A few minutes later, NY1 announced that Espada had conceded the race. At 11pm, the Associated Press called it for Paladino. That left just one race: Attorney General.

A little after 12am, my group of friends and I decided that we would head to the Schneiderman party. By this point, Schneiderman was up by 3% points over Rice with about 70% of the preciencts reporting. We hailed a cab and headed over the the Grand Hyatt. In attendance at the Schneiderman party were many notable local politicians including Governor David Paterson, Congressman Jerold Nadler, State Senators Daniel Squadron and Eric Adams, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.

As the minutes passed, the number of precincts reporting steadily rose. A rumor began to spread that once 90% of the precincts were reporting and Schneiderman was still in the lead, the Senator was going to declare victory. The projector in the ballroom where the party was being held was tuned to Fox5 and then, later, NY1. One of the networks (I can't remember which one) showed the Rice election night party in Carle Place, Long Island. It was completely bare. Not a sole was there. It was empty. The room became very optimistic.

By 1am, my BlackBerry's battery was on its last legs. I grabbed my backpack and sat on the floor in the hallway at an outlet to let it charge. Around 1:10, I heard a chanting coming from the ballroom of "Er-ic! Er-ic! Er-ic!" I knew that either the Senator was up at least one more percentage point, we had reached the magin 90% number, or, maybe, just maybe, someone was ready to declare a victor. I pulled my charger out of the wall socket, shoved it and my BlackBerry into my pants' front right pocket, hoisted my backpack onto a shoulder and dashed into the ballroom.

I arrived exactly when the President of NARAL Pro-Choice NY, Kelli Conlin, began to speak. I didn't have to look at any screen or ask anyone what had happened. The energy of the room said it all. Eric Schneiderman was officially the Democratic Nominee to be the next Attorney General of the State of New York. At the end of his speech, the Senator introduced the next senator from the 33rd Senate District: Gustavo Rivera. Two great winners of the night together. Words cannot describe the feeling we all had/

I didn't get home until 3:00am this morning. I didn't fall asleep until about 4:15 and, even then, it seemed more like dozing than anything else. My voice, as of this writing, still has not recovered. The energy and enthusiasm you get when your candidate wins makes up for it all. If you all want to remember how I felt last night, recall November 4, 2008.

Photos from last night coming soon