Now that Edward Hennessey has won in a Long Island Assembly district, the size the Democratic conference is growing to 107.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver released a statement this afternoon of congratluations to Hennessey, whose race was one of the few outstanding left after Election Day.

The conference’s size is the second largest of Silver’s long tenure, the most populated being 109 Democrats, plus one independent.

Earlier this week, newly re-elected Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb told me in an interview that the tough losses this year came in part because of partisan redistricting and the trickle-down effect from several high-profile Congressional races that broke for Democrats and their big cash advantage.

“In a year like this when you have redistricting and the impact of redistricting and money and a big presidential year in a blue state, you’re just going to generate more Democrats to vote than the normal turnout rate,” he said.

Compounding problems, Kolb noted that the GOP conference has had a high turnover rate in the last two years.

“We’ve lost 40 percent of our incumbents and that’s especially hard to overcome,” he said.

Republicans have not controlled the Assembly since the post-Watergate scandal wave election of 1974.

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