The battle for control of the State Senate is fully underway.

Normally, three to five Senate seats are swing seats in an election cycle in New York -- meaning they can be won by Democrats or Republicans. This year, however, eight to nine seats fit that description: three and perhaps four on Long Island, three in the Hudson Valley, and two upstate (one in Monroe County and another in the suburbs of Erie County).

The uncertainty -- so many different districts representing so many different regions -- makes predicting the outcome difficult.