Wiser heads than mine have written about why the Dems did so poorly (picking up only one seat) in the State Senate last night. Here’s a commenter from MyDD (via Daily Politics):

On a great day almost everywhere, the failure of the NYDems to make a real attempt at taking the State Senate is the one thing that is still pissing me off.

Having worked in NYC politics for five years, I can tell you there is plenty of blame to go around.

1. Top of the ticket. Spitzer, Hillary raised millions of dollars to run up the numbers in their own races but did little to nothing the help Dems take back the Senate. Hillary’s spending was just her actingly largely out of self interest (eg: ‘08), which doesn’t excuse her but my expectations are so low at this point that i barely get worked up. But Spitzer is going to be gov. of NY, and his agenda will be stalled by the Repub. State Senate. ALL New Yorkers who want to see progressive change in NY should be angry about it, and my sympathy for Spitzer will be minimal when it happens.

2. NY State Democratic Party. In 2004, largely under the guidance of a VERY able team put together by NY State Sen. Eric Schniederman, the Dems make real gains in the State Senate. One year later, due to a variety of factors - that team was no longer there; then minority leader David Patterson (soon to be Spitzer’s Lt. Gov. running mate) did NOTHING in his role as minority leader to recruit candidates, raise money, etc…. Everyone knew with Spitzer and Hillary on the ticket there would be great coattails; the NY State Dems did NOTHING to take advantage of them.

3. NY State Interest Groups. I understand why they do what they do, but many progressive (or so-called progressive) interest groups, unions, etc… support State Senate Republicans because the system more or less works for these interest groups. Access and influence are what is important; the bigger picture is not really a factor. So many of the most powerful interests in the state that are natural Dem allies line up behind Joe Bruno and the rest of the Rep State Senate candidates each year, making it hard to beat them.

4. NY State Assembly. It is not in Dem Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver’s interest for the State Senate to be run by Dems, because it would reduce his influence. He has long had a working agreement with the Rep. head of the State Sen. Joe Bruno to leave the other alone. Dems get the Assembly, Reps get the Senate - seats are gerrymandered as per the instructions of the leaders to make it as difficult as possible for the Reps to lose the Senate and for the Dems to loose a VETO PROOF MAJORITY in the assembly.

So, Spitzer deserves some blame here, but there is plenty to go around. He could fix things a lot by cleaning up the state party…