Democrats hold onto control of Assembly

Despite losing the governor's office, Democrats staved off Republican challenges in several battleground districts yesterday, maintaining almost a decade of dominance in the state Assembly.

But the party was in danger of losing one seat last night, as school official William Collins trailed Republican lawyer Domenick DiCicco in his bid to succeed Assemblywoman Sandra Love (D-Gloucester), who did not seek re-election in the 4th District.

"We knew from the get-go that these were going to be some tight races," said Derek Roseman, spokesman for the Democratic Assembly Campaign Committee. He said election workers were still counting ballots late last night.

With 99 percent of districts counted by 11:30 p.m., it seemed to be a safe election for incumbents, although some races remained too close to call.

Republican State Committee chairman Jay Webber focused on Chris Christie's win over Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine.

"The Legislature is going to have a friend in the governor's office, and that's the most important thing," he said. The Assembly went into the election with 48 Democrats and 32 Republicans. The Democrat-controlled state Senate is not up for election until 2011. Rider University political scientist Ben Dworkin said Democrats were able to prevent deeper losses by making the governor's race a close contest.

"It takes a big win to have real electoral change in the Legislature," he said. In close elections, he added, "we should not expect a real coattail effect."

Some of the hot races were:

3 The 36th District, covering parts of Essex, Bergen and Passaic counties, where Republicans Carmen Pio Costa and Don Diorio failed in their second bid to unseat Frederick Scalera (D-Essex) and Gary Schaer (D-Passaic).

"The numbers are resounding," Schaer said. "We're very happy and very humbled."

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