2012 New York State Senate election

2012 New York State Senate election

← 2010 November 6, 2012 2014 →

All 63 seats in the New York State Senate
32 seats needed for a majority
  Majority party Minority party
 
Leader Dean Skelos John L. Sampson
Party Republican Democratic
Leader's seat 9th District 19th District
Seats before 33 29
Seats after 30[1] 33[1]
Seat change Decrease 3 Increase 4

Results:
     Democratic gain
     Democratic hold      Republican hold

Temporary President and Majority Leader before election

Dean Skelos
Republican

Temporary President and Majority Leader

Dean Skelos
Republican

The 2012 New York State Senate elections were held on November 6, 2012 to elect representatives from all 63 State Senate districts in the U.S. state of New York.[2][3] Primary elections were held on September 13, 2012.[4]

Democrats won a total of 33 seats for a three-seat majority. Democrats gained seats in Senate Districts 17 (where Democrat Simcha Felder defeated Republican incumbent David Storobin), 41, and 55 (where Ted O'Brien defeated Sean Hanna to win the seat vacated by the retiring Republican Sen. Jim Alesi), and won the election in the newly created Senate District 46.[2][3][1] In Senate District 46, Republican George Amedore was named the winner and was sworn in as a senator. However, a recount revealed that Democrat Cecilia Tkaczyk had defeated Amedore by 18 votes; therefore, Amedore vacated the seat (becoming the shortest-tenured senator in modern New York history) and Tkaczyk was sworn in.[1][5]

Of the four Republican state senators who voted for the Marriage Equality Act in 2011 (Sens. Roy McDonald, James Alesi, Mark Grisanti, and Stephen Saland),[6] only Grisanti was re-elected in 2012.[7]

On December 4, 2012, it was announced that Senate Republicans had reached a power-sharing deal with the four-member Independent Democratic Conference (IDC).[8] Together, the Senate Republicans and the IDC held enough seats to form a governing majority. That majority was augmented when freshman Sen. Simcha Felder of Brooklyn, a Democrat, joined the Senate Republican Conference.[9]

  1. ^ a b c d Vielkind, Jimmy "It's Tkaczyk by just 18 votes," Times Union, January 18, 2013, Retrieved January 19, 2013
  2. ^ a b "New York State Senate Election Results, 2012" (PDF).
  3. ^ a b "2012 Election Results - New York State Legislature". Retrieved January 10, 2019 – via NYTimes.com.
  4. ^ "2012 New York State Primary Results" (PDF). Elections.NY.gov. Retrieved November 30, 2021.
  5. ^ United Press International (UPI), " Dem. squeaks into N.Y. Senate by 18 votes," January 18, 2013, Retrieved January 18, 2013
  6. ^ Kaplan, Thomas (September 24, 2012). "G.O.P. State Senator Who Backed Same-Sex Marriage Is Apparently Defeated" – via NYTimes.com.
  7. ^ Kaplan, Thomas (December 13, 2012). "In Final Tally, Vote for Gay Marriage Costs 3 Republicans". The New York Times.
  8. ^ Roy, Yancey (December 5, 2012). "Skelos praises his Senate deal with Dems". Newsday. Retrieved October 22, 2018.
  9. ^ Kaplan, Thomas (November 13, 2012). "Newly Elected State Senator, Simcha Felder, Defects to G.O.P". Retrieved February 8, 2018 – via NYTimes.com.