After the election of Democrat Darrel Aubertine to the State Senate on Wednesday, lines are already being drawn for a battle royal for control of the body in November. Aubertine won in the 48th District, a territory that has been represented by Republicans for the past 100 years. This reduces the GOP stranglehold on Albany to just one seat, which Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno proclaims the party will maintain. "We lost that battle, but we are going to win the war," Bruno said, according to the Post. The way the Albany Times-Union sees it, the extremely contentious State Senate race this fall will come down to two tactics: fear and frustration.

Democrats will remind voters decades of Republican rule in the Senate have done little to avert the state's rising taxes and sluggish economy. That's the frustration part.

Republicans who backed Barclay have already started warning that, should they lose their majority, New York would be under the control of just one political party, the Democrats. That's the fear part.

Democrats positioning themselves as a change from a stagnant GOP regime, and Republicans playing upon voters' fears to get them to the ballot box? There really is only one story in politics, huh?

State of the Senate in Play [Albany Times-Union]
Related: Driving the Steamroller [NYM]