SYRACUSE - Democrat Assemblyman Darrel Aubertine upset Republican Will Barclay in special election Tuesday for the state Senate's 48th district, a win that moves the Democrats a step closer to controlling the Senate.

With all the precincts reporting, Aubertine had 27,901 votes, or 52 percent, to 25,345 votes for Barclay, 48 percent.

With the loss, Senate Republicans now have just a 32-30 lead over Democrats in the chamber the GOP has ruled for four decades.

Aubertine, a dairy farmer from Cape Vincent, was first elected to the 118th Assembly District in 2002. Barclay was elected the same year in the adjacent 124th Assembly District. His father, H. Douglas Barclay, served in the New York Senate from 1965 to 1984.

Aubertine replaces Republican Sen. Jim Wright, who retired in January after 15 years to take a consulting job.

The ballot may have carried Aubertine's and Barclay's names but the race was just as much a face-off between Gov. Eliot Spitzer and Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno.

Wright's departure left the Republicans with a 32-29 edge in the Senate, where they have held power since the mid-1960s. It's a margin of control that has been eroding steadily over the past decade.

A loss here, where Republicans usually win, carries an ominous overtone for Bruno and the GOP, who face yielding total control of state government to the Democrats, already in command of the Assembly and the governor's mansion. Spitzer made it clear early in his term that he wanted a Democratic-controlled Senate and he worked to win a special election last year on Long Island.

Each candidate spent more than $1.3 million on the campaign, which barely lasted six weeks, making it the second most expensive Senate election in state history. Most of the money came from the state parties or the party leadership - only about 1 percent of each candidate's total contributions came from inside the district.

The candidates spent most of that money on negative television ads attacking each other both politically and personally.

Meanwhile, both the Republican and Democratic leadership loaned key political operatives to the campaigns.

No Democrat has held the North Country seat for at least a century and enrollment appeared to favor Barclay - 78,454 Republicans to 46,824 Democrats, but there were also 35,000 independent voters. But Aubertine was elected three times in his district, a traditionally Republican territory. Aubertine carried completely his home turf of Jefferson and St. Lawrence counties. Barclay carried his home county of Oswego.

The two candidates took each other to court over who would get the Independence Party line. A judge initially ruled the line would be left blank but the state Court of Appeals on Monday awarded the line to Barclay.