NEW YORK-Hillary Clinton supporters took over the Hyatt Hotel in Manhattan to celebrate Clinton's solid victory over U.S. Rep. Rick A. Lazio in the U.S. Senate race last night.
Clinton's win was called as soon as the New York polls closed at 9 p.m., the party goers quickly turned their attention to Gore's electoral count, cheering every time he won a state.
Amidst the confusion of the presidential race, the whereabouts of the Clintons, and who could go to which VIP area, Hillary's ecstatic supporters hugged each other and made toasts to six years of Senator Clinton.
"I'm so glad Hillary won," said Judy Glass, a Long Island native. "I know Rick Lazio, [who is from Long Island] and he is not qualified for the job."
The push to get into the ballroom where Clinton was going to make her victory speech was like a line for festival seating at a concert.
Clinton thanked the packed ballroom profusely for electing her the first woman U.S. senator from New York.
"From the bottom of my heart, thank you, New York," she said.
The Lazio campaign had repeatedly criticized Clinton for not being a New York native.
But New York voters did not seem to care that Clinton only moved here two years ago.
"Because she's from out of state," said Clinton volunteer Patty Chang Anker, "she's had to work harder to win people over."
Many pundits said Lazio lost because he only catered to the "ABC" voters - Anyone But Clinton.
Clinton, on the other hand, "cared much more about the issues," Chang Anker said.
Clinton was also able to win more than just the female voters.
"I'm surprised she was able to hold her own with the male vote," NBC news correspondent Jason Palmer said.
According to Palmer, 47 percent of the male voters voted for Clinton and 58 percent of the female voters voted for Clinton.
He also said he thought her decision not to appear on national news shows such as "Larry King Live!" and only focus on New York media proved to be a good strategy.
The party of revelers at the hotel was a diverse group that included union workers in jeans and baseball caps, stylishly dressed twenty something yuppies, orthodox Jews and glittery old ladies with Long Island accents.
Kent Anker, a member of the teacher's labor movement, attended the gala.
"I voted for Hillary because she's so much more in tune to what teachers want," he said. "She won't let us down."
In her victory speech, Clinton vowed to practice bipartisan politics.
"I will reach across party lines to make progress," she said.
"Today we voted as Democrats and Republicans; tomorrow we begin again as New Yorkers," she added.
Despite Clinton's call for bipartisanship, her supporters still vehemently booed third party candidate Ralph Nader when he appeared on CNN.
Nader may have taken votes away from Gore and cost him the presidency.
The televisions in the VIP area of the lobby were the main sources of attention of the party.
Rumors would ripple through the crowd from the TVs.
"If Gore won Florida, doesn't that mean he won the election?"
"But I thought it was still too close to call."
"That's just what Bush's people said."
These comments were heard over and over again in the crowd.
The press was probably the most excited of all.
"This is like the Super Bowl," Palmer said.
Fellow White House press corps member Hank Brown agreed.
"No one's going to sleep tonight," Brown said.
He commended the voters for not just voting with their party, but considering each candidate individually.
"The public really took the time to think the issues through," and voted intelligently, he said.
Lazio graciously made his concession speech around 11:00 p.m. amid supporters who chanted "Go home, Hillary!"
Lazio quieted them down and joked, "I feel like the Mets."
Like Clinton, he said it was time for New Yorkers to reunite.
Oregon resident and Clinton fan Heather Himmelsbach came to the city because of the election.
"We knew she was going to win," she and her mother, Kathleen, said.
But since they were not New York residents, they still did not get to vote.
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