Joseph Spector

Albany Bureau Chief

ALBANY – Gov. Andrew Cuomo was re-elected to a second term Tuesday.

The Associated Press called the race for Cuomo, a Democrat first elected in 2010, shortly after polls closed at 9 p.m. He went into his re-election bid as a heavy favorite against Republican Rob Astorino, the Westchester County executive.

"Thank you for four more years. We're going to do more great things. We're going to take this state even higher," Cuomo said in an acceptance speech in Manhattan. He said Astorino called him to concede.

All statewide seats were on the ballot Tuesday, including for attorney general and comptroller. The 213-seat state Legislature was also up for election – including control of the closely divided Senate.

"You can't lose when you tell the truth, and tonight I know that's true," Astorino said in his concession speech in White Plains. "For we have not tilted at windmills in this campaign; We have planted a flag and we will return to reclaim it and advance it further."

Taking the stage at 10:33 p.m. to loud applause, his wife and children beside him, Astorino repeated many of his campaign pledges, asking Cuomo to scrap Common Core and decrying corruption in Albany.

With his running mate, Chemung County Sheriff Chris Moss onstage with him, Astorino also hinted that this was not his last campaign.

"We need more kindness in American politics from all parties, starting right here in New York," Astorino said, going on to quote presidents Lincoln and Kennedy before thanking his supporters.

Within 10 minutes, Astorino's speech, and campaign for governor, was over.

His supporters, though, appeared to cling to hope for a political future beyond Westchester.

With a large silver belt buckle gleaming at his waist and a glass of wine in his hand, Abraham Tejada Jr. of New Rochelle urged his candidate to run again.

"In life you should never give up," he said. "You just keep going forward till you get to the top, till you get where you want to be."

Ed Cox, chairman of the state's Republican Party, credited Astorino and Moss for running a competitive race that lifted down-ticket Republicans to victory.



He also predicted they would run for statewide office again, calling Astorino the "best gubernatorial candidate I've seen."



"For both of them, this isn't the end, this is the start," Cox said of Astorino and his running mate. "They are the future of the Republican Party."

Kevin Plunkett, Westchester's deputy executive, acknowledging the outcome of the election, said Astorino would return to governing the county as he has been all along—as a fiscal conservative.

"From a political perspective, I think he has to take a breath," Plunkett said. "When you see somebody who's a public servant and is honest and friendly, there's a next step for somebody like that. And we'll be there with him."

Cuomo had clear advantages against Astorino: His campaign spent more than $30 million in a state with twice as many Democrats as Republicans, and he had the power of incumbency to tout his achievements.

Speaking to reporters after he voted in his hometown of New Castle, Cuomo said he took office with the state facing a $10 billion deficit and still reeling from the recession. He said the state now has budget surpluses, and employment has rebounded.

"You look at this state four years later and it's in a fundamentally different place," Cuomo, 57, said. "Taxes are down for every New Yorker. We have record job growth. We have more private jobs today than have ever existed in the state of New York – which is remarkable."

As a potential presidential candidate in 2016, Cuomo likely expected a smoother path after he won in 2010 with 61 percent of the vote. Astorino had run a spirited campaign and vowed that he could pull off the upset on Election Day – harkening back to 1994 when Cuomo's father, Mario, surprisingly lost a fourth term to George Pataki, the last Republican to win statewide office when he won a third term in 2002.

Astorino contended that the economy hasn't improved under Cuomo, particularly upstate, and criticized the governor for being under federal investigation after he abruptly ended a corruption-busting panel in March. Polls had shown Astorino, who was able to spend about $4.6 million on his campaign as of late last month, down by at least 20 percentage points throughout the race.

"There is a huge gap with the enthusiasm in this state between our candidacy and Andrew Cuomo's," Astorino, 47, said after he voted. "People are proud to come out and vote today for us. There's an energy, there's a momentum for us today. As we've felt for the last several weeks, this race has shifted dramatically."

Cuomo faced pressure from conservatives and liberals throughout the campaign. He angered gun-rights groups for a hastily approved gun-control law in January 2013, and he upset progressives for providing tax cuts to businesses and the wealthy.

But Cuomo has said his aim has been to take a centrist approach. He limited state spending, installed a property-tax cap and cut income taxes, yet pressed Republican leaders who controlled the state Senate to back him on the gun-control bill and allow a vote to legalize same-sex marriage in 2011.

"You can't make everybody happy," Cuomo said in an interview last month with Gannett's Albany Bureau. "The extreme left has issues with my tax policies. The extreme right has issues with my gun policy."

Cuomo will be the first Democratic governor to win a second term in New York since his father did so in 1986. And Cuomo, the state's 56th governor, will be facing a different set of circumstances than when he first took office.

With the state no longer in severe fiscal trouble, he will be able to spend money on new programs and initiatives – and the state recently received more than $4 billion in bank settlements that could fund infrastructure and education.

"Night-and-day difference," Cuomo told Gannett. "We came in, we stepped onto the Titanic. And now we're stepping onto a cruise liner."

Cuomo will face growing pressure from liberals – particularly if Democrats can win the state Senate. The parties were locked in a tight battle for Senate control on Election Day after Republicans have held at least a share of control during Cuomo's first term.

In May, Cuomo pledged to support the union-backed Working Families Party's agenda in exchange for its endorsement. Then in September, he had to fend off a Democratic primary challenge from liberal activist Zephyr Teachout, who won a surprising 34 percent of the vote.

Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins was viewed as an alternative to Cuomo for liberals, while Cuomo encouraged New Yorkers to vote for him on his newly created Women's Equality Party line -- a move seen as payback against the Working Families Party.

Cuomo has vowed to back stronger abortion rights in a second term, as well as public financing of campaigns and a higher minimum wage. Republicans, including Astorino, have resisted those proposals.

Cuomo will also have to contend with the indecision over whether to approve hydraulic fracturing in the Southern Tier and how to guide the state's plans to allow for up to four casinos in three regions of the state: the Albany area, Southern Tier and Catskills.

Astorino said he would move forward with fracking in the first months of his administration.

Cuomo will benefit from an improving economy. In January 2011, the unemployment rate was 8.2 percent; in September, it was 6.2 percent, only slightly above the national rate, but the lowest since 2008.

The upstate economy has sputtered, though, and Cuomo said he would put a similar focus into upstate cities that he has done in Buffalo – where he lost in 2010 and has since pumped $1 billion in state aid toward economic development.

He proposed a $1.5 billion fund for upstate cities in a second term, saying in a policy book that the state would "invest in both catalytic infrastructure projects as well as quality of life initiatives to make upstate New York a better place to live, work, and visit."

Staff writer Ned P. Rauch contributed to this report.

jspector@gannett.com; www.twitter.com/gannettalbany