NEW YORK — In the end, the contest between Gov. Kathy Hochul and her Republican challenger, Rep. Lee Zeldin of Long Island, was not quite as close as some Democrats had feared in the final days of the New York governor’s race. Hochul won by about 5 percentage points, according to incomplete Board of Elections results, a margin large enough to allow her to celebrate before midnight Tuesday. But Hochul, who assumed her office after former Gov. Andrew Cuomo resigned last year, still experienced the closest contest any Democrat had faced in a New York governor’s race in two decades. Zeldin, runnin…