NY-1 too close to call: Tim Bishop leads Randy Altschuler by a little more than 3,000

By Sam Foster

I'm closely watching NY-25 unfold where Ann Marie Buerkle may in fact emerge victorious over Dan Maffei as Wayne County finishes the remaining 40% of ballots.  Another race in NY is still being contested.  The race fell off the radar when AP called the election for incumbent Tim Bishop late last night.  However, Republican Randy Altschuler has not capitulated.  He's waiting out the absentee ballot count of which some nearly 9,000 votes remain uncounted.

Via The Jewish Week:

Altschuler would be the second Jewish Republican in Congress and has built ties with Rep. Eric Cantor, who is now likely to be House Majority Leader.

As of Wednesday morning Alstchuler was down about 3,000 votes but had yet to concede to Bishop as absentee ballots are being counted. The tally as of noon was 92,252 for Bishop and 88,791 for Altschuler.

At a ballroom at the Watermill Inn in Smithtown, Altschuler's supporters gathered around a TV set watching for Election Night coverage of his attempt to unseat Democratic Rep. Timothy Bishop in the First Congressional District on Long Island East End.

As other supporters in an adjacent room noshed on a spread of pasta, hero sandwiches, salad and fruit, the crowd in the main ballroom began thinning because returns were only trickling in and Bishop, 60, was maintaining a steady 3 or 4 percent lead.

"They haven't counted the votes in Smithtown yet," supporters of Alschuler, 39, kept saying, referring to the candidates base of support.

By 11:30, only about 40 percent of the vote had been counted.

Robert Ryan, Altschuler's press secretary, said the candidate was home with his family in St. James and would make the 10-minute drive to the restaurant as soon as the race was decided.

But later it became clear that the race was too close to call and would depend on the counting of more than 9,000 absentee ballots. With all 460 election districts reporting, the incumbent, had 3,461 more votes than Altschuler of the 181,043 votes cast. Bishop declined to declare victory and Altschuler did not concede.

Altschuler has a shot, although only a very minute one, at upsetting Tim Bishop.  However, the bigger story might be that regardless of whether the GOP win NY-25 or NY-1, there certainly is a much bigger story to NY's congressional elections last night than the 5 seats picked up last night.