At the start of every election season in New York, there is much talk among pols and the press about which major Party candidates the minor Parties (Independence, Conservative, Working Families) will cross-endorse in the few tightly contested races for Congress and State Legislature.

But after the elections, there is little notice paid to what effect (if any) the minor Party endorsements had in those races. This is largely because the unofficial results published the day after Election Day almost always list the total votes for each candidate, not the results for each Party.

The New York State Board of Elections has now published the official results for Congress and State Legislature with includes the total for each Party (except for the still undecided Padavan-Gennaro Senate race).

So here are those contests where the winning candidate needed the additional votes on minor Party lines to prevail.

Congress

29^th CD (Southern Tier)

Congressman-elect Eric Massa received 131,480 votes on the Democratic line. Congressman Randy Kuhl got 135,160 as the Republican-Independence-Conservative candidate. So the 9,003 votes Massa had on the Working Families line were required for him to win.

State Senate

7^th SD (Nassau County)

Senator Kemp Hannon’s 52,962 votes on the Republican line alone were not enough to beat the 57,560 votes Kristen McElroy received as the D-W candidate. Hannon’s 4,504 Conservative and 3,124 Independence votes put him over the top.

56^th SD (Monroe County)

Senator Joe Robach had 51,728 on the Republican line to Richard Dollinger combined total of 58,117 as the Democratic and WFP lines. The Conservatives 5,452 and Independence’s 5,149 was necessary for Robach to win.

58^th SD (Erie County)

Senator William Stachowski’s 56,000 Democratic votes were edged out by the 56,871 votes that Republican Dennis Delano got on the Republican, Conservative and TPF (a candidate sponsored minor Party) lines. The 4,191 Stachowski got on the Conservative line and the 3,925 as the WFP candidate allowed him to win.

61^st SD (Erie-Genesee Counties)

Joe Mesi had 67,207 votes as the D-W candidate, more than the 63,667 Senator-elect Michael Ranzenhofer received on the Republican line. But adding the votes on the Independence and Conservative lines put Ranzenhofer at 74,750.

State Assembly

100^th AD (Hudson Valley)

The only incumbent Assemblyman to lose in November, Tom Kirwan, had enough votes as the R-I-C candidate – 21,605 to edge out Assemblyman-elect Frank Skartados’ votes as Democrat – 21,360. But the 1,141 votes added by the Working Families got Skartados up to 22,501 votes.

102^nd AD (Dutchess County)

Assemblyman Joel Miller might have been enough losing incumbent as his 24,184 votes on the Republican line is less than the 25,331 Jonathan Smith got as the D-W candidate. But Miller also was the Independence-Conservative candidate and ended up with 28,849 votes.

And then there is the still contested 11^th SD race between Senator Frank Padavan and Councilman Jim Gennaro. While the final votes are not yet certified, whichever candidate wins will have needed minor Party. The unofficial results posted by the State BOE have Gennaro with 40,900 votes on the Democratic line, which is less than the 42,697 R-I-C votes of Padavan and have Padavan with 36,941 Republican votes, less than the 42,310 D-W votes Gennaro has as of now.