The Socialist Labor state convention met on April 1, and nominated again the same ticket as in 1958, headed by Eric Hass for Governor.

[1] The Democratic state convention met from September 16 to 18 at Syracuse, New York, and nominated U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Robert M. Morgenthau for governor on the second ballot over Frank D. O'Connor, Samuel S. Stratton, Howard J. Samuels, James Farley, and Abraham Beame.

They also nominated Mayor of Binghamton John J. Burns for lieutenant governor;[2] Manhattan Borough President Edward R. Dudley for attorney general; attorney New York City School Board president James B. Donovan for the U.S. Senate; and re-nominated the incumbent Comptroller Arthur Levitt.

[3] The Republican state convention met on September 19 at Buffalo, New York, and renominated the incumbents Rockefeller, Wilson, Lefkowitz and Javits; and completed the ticket with John P. Lomenzo for Comptroller and New York Supreme Court Justice Marcus G. Christ for the Court of Appeals.

On October 1, the Republican State Chairman L. Judson Morhouse announced that his party dropped the suit, and the ticket went on the ballot.