What Happened?

On November 4, Barack Obama won New York's 31 electoral votes. Obama won 62.14% of votes to John McCain's 36.68%. The total number of votes for Obama was 4363386, while McCain recieved 2576360 votes.

McCain actually won a decent amount of counties, 27 to Obama's 33. New York, Bronx, Queens, Nassau, and Suffolk counties all went for Obama, with New York and Bronx giving Obama over 80% of the vote. This is probably where Obama got a huge chunk of his vote, being that they are very populous counties.

Exit polls done by NY Daily News:
Overall, one in seven voters were under 30. About as many were over 65.
More than a third of voters said they were looking for a candidate who bring change to Washington, compared to one in five who put a greater premium on experience.
Wallet worries eclipsed every other major issue by giant margins in the election of 2008, the polling showed.
Six in 10 voters said the economy was the most important issue facing the nation.
None of four other choices - Iraq, energy, terrorism and health care - was picked by more than one in 10.
Voters worried about their finances were more likely to pick Obama over Republican John McCain.
About half the voters interviewed said the economy is in poor shape and and nearly all the rest said it's not good.
Fifty-seven percent thought Obama is in touch with people like themselves; only 40% said the same of McCain.
About 40% said their family's financial situation has worsened since 2004. Only about a quarter said it's gotten better.
More than half said they opposed the $700 billion government bailout for Wall Street banks.
A third of voters reported household income of less than $50,000; a quarter had more than $100,000.
One in five had only a high school diploma; nearly half had a college degree.
One in four voters was a white born-again evangelical Christian.
Nearly half of voters have a gun in their household.

New York Governor Worries Obama will Forget about New York

New York Gov. David Patterson, a big supporter of Obama, fears that if the presidential nominee becomes president, he will neglect New York's fiscal needs.

"If he's president and he know he can always depend on winning New York, we may have the same problems with him that we had with President Clinton. Clinton raised all this money in New York and then went down to Washington. We didn't see any change in reimbursement rate from Washington while he was president." said Patterson on Monday.

The governor claims that Democratic contenders have a history of collecting contributions and electoral votes from New York, then ignoring the state's struggles once elected because it's a reliably blue state. 

"Let the Issues Be the Issues"

Global Ad Agency, Grey New York, released an image yesterday reminding voters to "Let the issues be the issues" as they go to the polls on election day.

The image features the two presidential candidates with their skin colors switched.

Grey New York's Cheif Creative Officer, Tor Myhren, said, "This is a non-partisan image. We wanted to address the race issue straight on and it cuts both ways. If you're hopping on either candidate's bandwagon solely due to the color of their skin, you're voting for the wrong reason."

The picture is being run in newspapers, outdoor posters, and online. 

Also interesting, several public schools around the country are building lesson plans around the image. 

1 Day to Go!!!

There has never been any question which way New York will go and with one day left until the election, I think it is very safe to call it for Obama. 

New York has not voted for a Republican since voting for Reagan in 1984. Polling clearly shows Obama with a strong lead. Pollster.com has Obama with 60.5 % to McCain's 34.3%.

Neither candidate has even bothered to campaign here because it has been clear from the beginning which way it would go. It would be pointless to spend time, effort, and money on a state that has been so historically blue and continues to go in that direction. 

With that said, New York's 31 electoral votes will go to Obama. 

Live from New York...it's John McCain!

(AP) John McCain has gotten a chance to poke fun at his campaign's financial shortcomings on NBC's "Saturday Night Live." McCain appeared with Tina Fey, once again doing her impression of sarah palin, as they tried to sell merchandise on the QVC shopping network.

Bloomberg Not Endorsing Presidential Candidate

When New York mayor Michael Bloomberg announced in February that he was not going to run for President, he said he was willing to help any candidate that "takes an independent, nonpartisan approach and embraces practical solutions that challenge party orthodoxy."

However on Tuesday, Bloomberg said neither McCain nor Obama had fully shown that nonpartisan, pragmatic tone "as much as I would like."

"I think both of them have given the public an understanding of who they are, but I don't think you can say that either has given the public concrete answers to what they would do," Bloomberg said.

Bloomberg has put his money behind a candidate every year since 1990.

New York Senate Battle

The New York Senate battle has never been so hot or so significant! Republicans are trying to hold back Democrats as Senate races are getting tighter in New York.

The Republicans plan: defend incumbents, win an open in Western New York and go after a few vulnerable Democratic lawmakers

The Democratic plan: beat some long-serving Republicans, win Western New York and keep their senators in office

While the assembly will stay Democratic, Republicans can claim the Senate-- they are hanging on to a 31-29-seat edge in the Senate, and there are more than a half dozen races in the state that will determine whether the chamber changes hands.

To read about all of the races in New York, click here.