The indispensable blog The Fix has a few ideas.

Among them:

1. Democrats here got swept up in the wave election

2. Upstate Republicans and independents swung back to the G.O.P.

3. Catholic voters swung back to the G.O.P.

While numbers two and three are just plain fact--borne out by exit polling data--many Democratic strategists are offering the first explanation for why they lost more seats than any other state in the country.

Heading into the election, most Democrats I...

The state Board of Elections says the election results in 10 races across New York have been impounded by the courts because of the closeness of the contests.

The races include the three tight contests for the state Senate-the Buffalo seat held by Democrat Sen. Antoine Thompson, the Westchester seat held by Democrat Suzi Oppenheimer and the Long Island seat held by Craig Johnson.

Republicans are currently in the lead against Thompson and Johnson, while Oppenheimer is deadlocked against Republican Bob Cohen.

Also impounded is the results from the 25th Congressional District between Democratic Rep. Dan Maffei of Syracuse and his Republican challenger Ann Marie Buerkle, who holds a 684-vote lead.

Six tight Assembly races have also been impounded: Districts 1, 89, 96, 100, 109 and 121.

Even if there wasn't so much at stake, and there's plenty with those three Senate races, it's always important that every vote gets counted. Just ask these people:

There's a new site up and running that will be following all the recount news over the coming weeks (and months?) called My Vote Counts NY. It's stuff like this that make me love the internet:

There are three State Senate races and one congressional race in New York that are deadlocked and potentially headed to a recount. Over the course of the next few week, we plan to track every statement and every ballot. Every machine error and every human error.

Before any winner is declared, the vote of every New Yorker must be counted.

This is serious business. I think the last decade has taught us just how important recounts can be. Three digits that I'm sure we all remember: 537. "Nuff said.

Count. Every. Vote.

Yesterday, on the subject of non-partisan redistricting, Chuck Schumer told reporters what he has been telling Ed Koch all along.

"Bottom line is that one thing you have to be careful at the Congressional level--I can't comment on the state and local levels--is you don't want to lose all that seniority if other states are not doing it," said Schumer.

Schumer might be on to something. On Tuesday, nineteen chambers across the country flipped to Republican...

Former Peekskill mayor and three-term Gov. George Pataki told The Note of ABC News that he will consider running for president if other candidates with the right leadership experience don’t step forward.

Ex-Gov. George Pataki sat down with ABC News, telling Rick Klein on “Top Line” that he is weighing a run for the presidency.

“When you look back at the past two years, it’s been very disappointing, not only — not just for Republicans, but for the American people,” Pataki told us. “And I think it shows the importance of experienced leadership — leaders who have shown the ability to govern and to move forward in a nonpartisan way, leaders who have been tested and shown their ability to get through those tests.”

“What I’m going to be looking at is, do we have the right people out there who have that experience, who have experienced leadership, who have been challenged and who can bring people together — not just Republicans and conservatives, but conservatives [and] Democrats. And make a decision on who else is out there, and whether or not they have those characteristics we need to be able to win this election and govern successfully.”

Pataki, like Palin, was a mayor before he was governor.

“It was a challenging job, mayor of Peekskill, let me assure you. Twice the size of Wasilla,” Pataki said.

Yonkers City Council President Chuck Lesnick has two fund-raising events this week.

The two-term Democrat wouldn’t say on Friday what political office he’s considering, but it’s important to note that Yonkers will have its mayoral election in November next year.

Lesnick will hold a wine and chesse reception on Yonkers’ future tonight at a private home on Hudson Terrace. On Wednesday Lesnick will have a post-election morning reception with New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio at Akerman Senterfitt in Manhattan.

Lesnick raised $30,244.60 in the first half of 2010, according to his July 2010 campaign finance disclosure filing with the state Board of Elections. Lesnick declared $25,171.30 in expenses for the same period.

His biggest expense in the first half of 2010 was for $10,000 paid to Henry Berger, an election law attorney and former counsel to Hillary Clinton’s senatorial campaign.

Republican leader Dean Skelos just issued a statement bidding Sen. Frank Padavan farewell, now that the numbers in his race against Tony Avella are insurmountable:

For almost four decades the people of Queens and all of New York City have had no greater champion in this state than Senator Frank Padavan. Senator Padavan leaves public service with the thanks and admiration of the countless people that he has helped over the years.

Many Mayors of New York have recognized that when they really needed someone to stand up for the City, they turned to Frank Padavan. Senator Padavan led the way for mayoral control of schools that has helped to strengthen and improve the quality of education for millions of children.

It’s truly unfortunate that some vested union interests in the City failed to recognize his efforts. As a result of their shortsightedness, New York City school children will be losing their strongest advocate in Albany. It’s a sad example of how union leaders put their political interests ahead of the children they are supposed to teach, and the children lose in the end.

It has been my honor and pleasure to serve with Frank Padavan. He is a tremendous public servant, a great friend and a source of wisdom and common sense that will be missed in Albany.

See the link above for Padavan’s concession statement from earlier today. For those keeping score at home, that still leaves us with 29 Democrats and 30 Republicans in the chamber.