But that was before May, when The New Yorker magazine detailed accounts of several women who said they were physically abused by Eric T. Schneiderman, the incumbent attorney general thought to have a lock on a third term.

Now Schneiderman’s resignation has resulted in the hottest Democratic primary in memory among four top-notch candidates:

• Sean Patrick Maloney, the three-term congressman from the lower Hudson Valley who held top positions with former President Bill Clinton as well as former Govs. Eliot L. Spitzer and David A. Paterson.

• Leecia R. Eve, a former top staffer to Sens. Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Hillary Rodham Clinton who was also economic development adviser to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.

• Letitia “Tish” James, the New York City public advocate and veteran of the Attorney General’s Office who is endorsed by the Democratic Party.

• Zephyr R. Teachout, a 2014 candidate in the Democratic primary for governor and Fordham law professor making her third bid for public office in the last four years.

The contest in Democratic New York is considered especially important because the attorney general post often provides a stepping stone to higher office. Spitzer and Cuomo both advanced to governor from the state’s top legal post, while Schneiderman was viewed in many quarters as a potential Cuomo successor before The New Yorker expose.

As the race concludes, it also remains close. Even the most experienced political observers are predicting that counting votes on Thursday night could prove a long process before a winner is declared.

“It’s wide open,” said Erie County Democratic Chairman Jeremy J. Zellner, who is supporting Eve. “Maloney has dumped a ton of money into TV here; Leecia has an uphill battle but she’s been all over the state; and Teachout has had an exciting 10 days.”

The latest Siena College poll also shows no clear leader. Maloney scored 25 percent but is statistically tied with James at 24 percent, while Teachout registers 18 percent and Eve trails with 3 percent. Significantly, however, 30 percent of those polled by Siena remain undecided.

One insider with knowledge of local polling who asked not to be identified said Maloney leads Eve, his closest competitor, by more than 2 to 1 in Erie County.

Among all the competitors, however, a consistent anti-President Trump message marks the campaign. All say they will continue efforts launched by Schneiderman and his interim successor, Barbara R. Underwood, to blunt administration policies considered “threats” to New Yorkers.

“New York currently faces unprecedented challenges — under attack by a federal administration that refuses to enforce, and seeks to roll back, progress we have fought hard to achieve,” Eve says on her website.

As the campaign winds down, upstate ranks as unexplored territory for most of the candidates. The four Democrats have concentrated most of their campaigning in New York City, which accounted for 52 percent of the vote in the 2014 primary for governor. Even Buffalo and Erie County, upstate’s largest concentration of Democrats that usually supplies about 10 percent of the primary vote, has been largely ignored.

Still, the James campaign emphasizes that it has conducted the broadest statewide campaign of any of the candidates. According to her spokeswoman, James has made 14 trips upstate during her campaign and “several” to Buffalo and Erie County.

“I know that many voters think that candidates for governor and AG do not care as much about them as New York City, but this really dispels that notion, at least for Tish,” said spokeswoman Delaney Kempner, who noted James has also sponsored a “big upstate buy” in her final television push before Thursday.

James has not been shy about campaigning against Trump.

“We’ve led the way in terms of being the resistance,” she said during a Buffalo campaign stop in June. “When we assume the role of attorney general, we’ll do the same.”

James enters the primary campaign’s home stretch with a huge name recognition advantage in New York City, where as public advocate she occupies one of three citywide positions. As a result, she is already familiar to the more than 3 million city Democrats eligible to vote – far surpassing the number of Democrats registered throughout the rest of the state.

Cuomo has endorsed her campaign, and the Democratic Party he controls supplied its backing at its May state convention. That includes strong support from Mayor Byron W. Brown, the state Democratic chairman.

Zellner’s Erie County Democrats clearly bucked Cuomo, Brown and the rest of the state establishment in support of hometown candidate Eve. Now she is sponsoring television ads around the state featuring photos of her with Clinton and Biden, for whom she served as a top Senate staffer. A graduate of Smith College, the JFK School of Government at Harvard University and Harvard Law, she has drawn on scores of political contacts stretching back decades that include many of her father’s statewide allies.

“I’m running as the most qualified and best-prepared candidate,” she told The Buffalo News earlier this summer. “I’m telling people they should want somebody with an understanding of the needs of this state. And my roots in New York State run deep.”

Maloney, meanwhile, was the first attorney general candidate to buy broadcast television time in Buffalo with introductory ads featuring his same-sex marriage and three children he adopted with his husband. The congressman, who unsuccessfully challenged Cuomo and former New York City Public Advocate Mark J. Green in 2006, has introduced a new statewide ad focusing on Trump, his experience as a lawyer, as a White House senior staffer, and his six years in Congress.

In a sign that he could beginning to be taken seriously by his opponents, the Working Families Party said Monday it has bought about $200,000 of television time to highlight several of his more "conservative" votes in Congress. The party officially lists a "placeholder" candidate on the ballot until after the primary, but considers both Teachout and James worthy of its backing.

Teachout has also gained momentum in the eyes of some observers following endorsements by the New York Times and The Buffalo News. She has also sponsored TV ads with an anti-Trump theme while emphasizing her independence from other politicians and political parties.

And while all the candidates say they will zero in on the culture of corruption that has dominated Albany in recent years, Teachout has stressed what she calls her unique credentials as a longtime student of corruption, even writing a book called "Corruption in America" a few years ago.

“It shows I have a nose for corruption,” she said, “and that matters because we have an ongoing corruption crisis in New York. The next attorney general needs to be somebody who’s willing to both use the full existing powers of the AG’s office and call out leadership, Republican and Democratic, Assembly, Senate and governor’s office.”