Early on Election Day last week, northwest Bronx State Senator Gustavo Rivera calmly walked into PS 86, a Kingsbridge Heights school turned polling site buzzing with voters. After removing his head phones and trademark fedora, Rivera settled into line to cast his ballot.

As a Democratic incumbent in the most Democratic county in the state, Rivera didn’t have to worry. He and every other Democrat in the Bronx would go on to easy victories. But Rivera still had much at stake.

National polls had President Barack Obama, who Rivera had worked hard to elect in 2008, in a dead heat with Republican challenger Mitt Romney going into Tuesday’s vote. In New York state, Rivera pinned his hopes on regaining majority rule in the senate (Republicans hold a slim majority, 32-30) on Democrats winning a couple of tight upstate races that could have gone either way.

Nerves? Nada.

“I’m totally Zen,” Rivera said. “I haven’t been nervous on election night in 10 years.” Rivera is just 35 years old, but before taking office in 2010, the Kingsbridge resident was already a veteran of dozens of elections. Back when he managed campaigns for others, Rivera spent election days in the field, making sure his team got out the vote for his candidate. When polls closed, Rivera pulled his troops off the battlefield and made sure each made it home safely. At that point in the night, he was always more interested in logistics than results.

In 2010, as a first-time candidate trying to unseat a well-funded opponent in Pedro Espada Jr. in the Democratic primary, Rivera finished campaigning and felt a calm wash over him. Again, he had done all he could do. So he decided to go to dinner.

This year, Rivera routed his primary opponent.  With that out of the way, Rivera concentrated on helping fellow Democrats.

For two years, Rivera has said senate Republicans had blocked the Democratic agenda in Albany, especially on hot button issues like stiffening housing regulations, enacting broad ethics reform and raising wage standards for workers.

He spent his own time fund-raising and campaigning for at least two Westchester Democrats hoping to steal Republican senate seats – Justin Wagner and George Latimer. Rivera also “made sure my staff had plenty of vacation time” to help out other Democrats who might sway the balance of power.

As for the presidency, Rivera still believed Obama was moving the country “Forward.” Rivera said his support for the president mostly involved doing “surrogate” campaigning in Florida, especially Orlando where there is a heavy Puerto Rican population. Rivera did numerous call-ins at Spanish-language radio stations to make the case for Obama. In a twist, he was basically working for his own chief of staff, Conchita Cruz, a Florida native who was running Spanish-language media efforts for the Obama campaign.

He and his staff had put in the work. Now, it was out of his hands.

As Rivera slowly moved down the line, he said he hadn’t quite decided how to spend election night, but was hoping there might be a victory party to attend later on.

Before midnight, media was calling the presidential race for Obama. Locally, things went according to plan. While Wagner lost to incumbent Greg Ball, Latimer beat out his Republican opponent and the Democrats appeared to take over a slim majority in the senate. (As of press time, votes were still being counted in a couple of close races. But Democrats, at least in name (see sidebar), were expected to have a majority.)

It’s unclear where Rivera ended up on election night. But it’s a good bet he was celebrating amongst friends.

Ed. note: This article was originally published in the Nov. 15-28 print edition of the Norwood News.

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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.