This was the election in which Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo had every reason to think he would outdo his father.

He had kept his promise to steady New York’s teetering state government, restoring a sense of competent leadership in Albany after years of turmoil. He had cemented an image of himself as the Cuomo who got things done — not just gave memorable speeches — by recording high-profile victories legalizing same-sex marriage, capping property tax increases and tightening gun-control laws. He faced an unknown, underfinanced, socially conservative opponent.

Instead, Mr. Cuomo, 56, who easily won re-election on Tuesday — but with what appeared to be a considerably smaller majority than the 65 percent that Gov. Mario M. Cuomo got during his bid for a second term, in 1986 — enters the next four years with less political clout than when the campaign began. Gone is the aura of invincibility that made Albany lawmakers clear out of his path. The governor’s future is uncertain, with a presidential bid presumably blocked by Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Mr. Cuomo has hinted occasionally at the makings of a broad, if workmanlike, agenda for the next four years: creating jobs, particularly upstate; rebuilding infrastructure, including upgrading New York’s aging airports; demanding better performance from the state’s public schools. But his basic message to voters has been simpler: “Keep this state moving forward,” he urged. More of the same.