Three weeks and one day after Election Day, it is official: Republican Daniel Losquadro has unseated three-term Democratic Assembyman Marc Alessi, who conceded Wednesday afternoon.
Losquadro, who was previously the minority leader in the Suffolk County legislature, will now join the GOP minority in Albany’s lower chamber. Alessi admitted defeat after his 40-vote deficit in an unofficial count released Nov. 3 grew to a 906 loss after the absentee ballot count was completed Tuesday.
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“It has been an absolute privilege to serve the residents of the First Assembly District over the past five years,” Alessi said in a statement posted on his campaign website. He added that his wife, Gretchen, is expecting their third child in January, so he will be spending more time with his family.
Political insiders have suggested that Alessi could run for Losquadro‘s old job, but that remained speculation Thanksgiving Eve, although it may have been hinted at in another part of Alessi’s concession statement.
“While I accomplished much of what I set out to do for Suffolk, there is still more work to be done,” he said, taking issue with public corruption and education funding. Alessi had first won the seat representing the North Fork in a 2005 special election.
Losquadro could not for comment Wednesday but has reportedly been making trips to Albany to find office space and make the transition in anticipation of taking on his new job.
The race was one of two hotly contested Assembly seats that had been in recount mode, the other involving an upstate New York district. With Losquadro’s win, the GOP are close to stripping Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) of his veto-proof Democratic majority of 100.
Republicans have so far increased from 42 to 50 seats in the Assembly while one seat was vacated and will be subject to a special election.
Two other critical races on Long Island remained unresolved before heading into the holiday weekend as well. Rep. Tim Bishop (D-Southampton) clung to a more than 200-vote lead in the last undecided congressional race in the nation.
State Sen. Craig Johnson (D-Port Washington) is pushing for a recount to reverse a more than 400-vote deficit against Republican Jack Martins, the Mineola mayor. That race is one of three undecided contests statewide that could hand the slim Democratic majority in the Senate to the GOP.
Attorneys for candidates in both of those races will go before Nassau and Suffolk county court judges next week where arguments will be heard on contested absentee ballots.
