You can hear the glee in his voice.

"We knew we were in for a dog fight, and at the end of the day, we came out on top," said Bill Reilich, Monroe County's chief Republican, moments after pulling off a triple-play.

In he face of scandal, the GOP kept control of the legislature, held onto the supervisor's seat in Greece, and even knocked off a Democratic town supervisor in Irondequoit.

"I think the only way you can interpret this is that it was a failure by the county party, to get their message across, and convince voters that there was something compelling about change," said Aaron Wicks, who writes for the local political blog, Smugtown Beacon.

Wicks said that the Democrats were fortunate to have the police scandal in Greece and the ROBUTRAD debacle to hammer away on. Those issues might have made a bigger difference, he says, if voters didn't have so much on their plate.

"Voters are very concerned about national issues, they're looking at health care, they're looking at the war in Afghanistan," said Wicks. "I think it was difficult to get through to them that there were some important local issues that they needed to pay attention to."

Also key? The Republicans helped themselves, running a nearly perfect race.

"Republicans just ran a very disciplined, low-key, constituent focused campaign, and it made it difficult for Democrats to get through to voters, that there was something they had to change," said Wicks.

A Democratic party spokesperson told News 8 that two things did them in: First of all, the historically low turnout of about 30% showed a lack of enthusiasm. Second, they had little crossover appeal. They say they need to win support from a fifth of the Republicans in places like Greece to be competitive. They admit, that didn't happen on Election Day.