There is no doubt that the recent election was a mixed blessing for the state Democratic party. Kathy Hochul won her first term by a narrow margin but she won and made history as the state’s first woman governor.

Aside from the victory of the candidates for governor, attorney general and state comptroller, the party suffered serious losses in four House races and a number of state legislative seats.

When a party takes it on the chin, the first response by the naysayers is to find someone to blame for all the bad news.

A handful of party progressives have concentrated their ire on Jay Jacobs, the state chairman. There is no doubt that there is plenty of blame to go around, but it isn’t Jay Jacobs’ fault that the party was hammered at the polls.

The first group that deserves some blame is the New York State Assembly and Senate. They concocted a set of maps that was overly greedy and was an invitation to being nullified.

They were trying to create as many Democratic House seats as possible and in the end; their plan was an invitation to a judicial rebuff. Once the plan was nullified, a special master was appointed and the new district lines became a party disaster.

The second group that deserves their share of the blame are the party progressives. The members of the two houses who fought serious efforts to get changes in the bail reform law, gave the Republicans a tailor-made issue to use against all of the Democrats.

Gov. Hochul was able to get some important changes during the budget process, but the progressives battled against any major overhaul. One Assembly member threatened to go on a hunger strike if any changes were made.

Some Democrats self-destructed by making faulty choices on where to run for re-election. The most well-known case is that of Congressman Shaun Patrick Maloney.

Maloney chose to run in a brand new district as opposed to staying in a district where he was well known.

Choosing unknown turf is a risky choice and he lost by a wide margin. The irony of this defeat is that Maloney is the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which had many victories on Election night thanks to Maloney’s hard work.

Another group that is worthy of criticism are the well-paid consultants that are supposed to guide the candidates with messaging and strategy.

Most of these people failed to pay attention to the Republican message on crime and only figured out their candidates were in trouble in the closing days of the battle. That is not the role of the state chairman who makes suggestions and is often overridden by consultants who think they possess all of the wisdom necessary to win.

Some credit must go to the state Republican Party which undertook a court fight to invalidate the Assembly and Senate redistricting plan. The party commenced an action in an upstate court anticipating a more friendly forum.

The court threw out the plan and the Democrats wound up with a plan that gave the Republicans a better chance to gain some seats. That plan resulted in the loss of four Democratic Congressional seats. New York’s new plan gave the Republicans a greater opportunity to take over the House.

Many of the critics of Jay Jacobs really don’t understand the role of the chair. Aaron Boone is the Yankee’s manager. He puts together the lineup card and then hopes that his players will perform. He doesn’t pitch or hit.

The party chair helps with candidate recruitment and raises a great deal of money for the party candidates. He consults with leaders all over the state and relies on county chairs to get out the vote and produce winners. He can try to shape the message but often the candidates insist on doing their own thing.

Looking back over the months leading up to Election Day, it is obvious that a lot of bad decisions were made by many people and the Democrats took a beating.

Going forward, the critics should pay attention to the issues that hurt the party and clean up the mess that was not caused by any one person.