Republican candidates gained a clear majority in the New York State Senate in the midterm elections on Nov. 4, despite the best efforts of the UFT and other unions and progressive organizations to elect candidates more supportive of public schools and working people.

The huge infusion of cash from pro-charter groups into independent expenditures targeting Democratic candidates, historically low voter turnout in New York State and public sentiment against President Obama combined to provide the margin of victory.

The New York State results were in line with the GOP wave in the rest of the country, with Republicans wresting control of the U.S. Senate from the Democrats, increasing their majority in the House of Representatives, claiming five more governorships and now controlling two-thirds of the state legislative chambers.

“Make no mistake,” UFT President Michael Mulgrew said grimly after the election. “These election results will mean more attacks on unions across the country in the months ahead.”

There were a few bright spots at the state and local levels.

The Democratic majority in the state Assembly grew by eight seats. And in the hard-fought race to represent the Buffalo area’s District 60 in the state Senate, Democrat Marc Panepinto, a former labor organizer and vocal opponent of school privatization, was victorious.

In another welcome development, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett lost his bid for re-election to Democrat Tom Wolf. Corbett had cut education funding by $1 billion statewide and canceled the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers’ contract through a state-run commission — a move that is being contested in court.

New York voters by more than 60 percent approved the Bonds for School Technology Act. The proposal allows the state to sell up to $2 billion in bonds, with the revenue going toward the purchase of educational technology, installation of high-tech security in schools, building and upgrading facilities for prekindergarten programs and replacing classroom trailers with permanent space. The UFT had urged its members to vote yes on the proposal.

Mulgrew expressed gratitude to the UFT election volunteers for their hard work. “It’s efforts like theirs that keep this union strong,” he said.

At phone banks at UFT borough offices in the weeks leading up to Election Day, hundreds of UFT members called fellow union members in the districts outside New York City with competitive Senate races to urge them to vote for the Democratic candidates. More than a hundred UFT members spent Saturday, Nov. 1, door-knocking for a state Senate candidate in a tight race. The UFT also sent a busload of volunteers to Philadelphia to campaign on behalf of Wolf in the governor’s race in Pennsylvania.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo won re-election to a second term with 54 percent of the vote. NYSUT and the UFT stayed neutral in the governor’s race.