Good news from my dad: My Uncle Dan, who was running for the Dutchess County Legislature as a Democrat against a long-term Republican incumbent, won his race yesterday by a respectable margin. In doing so, he helped tip the partisan balance of that legislative body.

For the first time in nearly 30 years, the Democrats appear to have seized control of the Dutchess County Legislature.

In unofficial results Tuesday, Democrats picked up one seat on the 25-member Legislature, giving them a 13-12 majority and putting them in power for the first time since 1977, when a Republican lawmaker switched her enrollment and put the Democrats in the majority.

In Northern Dutchess, Democrats snatched from the GOP the District 7 seat in Hyde Park and the District 20 seat in Red Hook, but lost the District 4 seat, also in Hyde Park.

In Hyde Park, former Legislator Robert Clearwater reclaimed the District 4 seat from incumbent Democrat Diane Nash, while Democrat Dan Kuffner outpolled incumbent Republican Noreen Reilly in District 7.

Clearwater oupolled Nash 1,054 to 1,000.

Clearwater, 56, had held the seat from 2001-05, losing to Nash, 52, in the 2004 election. District 4 encompasses the western half of Hyde Park.

In District 7, Kuffner, 60, a political newcomer, defeated Reilly, 63, a six-term lawmaker and current majority leader of the Legislature, 1,148-916. District 7 encompasses the eastern half of Hyde Park.

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Each party went into the race with 11 incumbents, and each party fielded challengers to nine incumbents, leaving two Democrats and two Republicans unchallenged in their re-election bids.

There were no incumbents in the District 1 town of Poughkeepsie, District 9 city of Poughkeepsie, and District 12 East Fishkill races, leaving those seats up for grabs.

A Democrat claimed victory in District 1, removing that seat from GOP control, while a Republican won the previously Democratic-controlled seat in District 9. A Republican also won the District 12 seat, meaning the GOP retained control of that seat.

But Democrats also picked up the District 24 seat, which encompasses the town of Dover and a portion of Union Vale, giving the party the one seat they needed to claim the majority.

There still were roughly 3,200 absentee and affidavit ballots to be counted before election results could be declared official. Elections commissioners are expected to begin ruling on the validity of those ballots on Nov. 13.