The owner and operator of his farm in Cape Vincent, Aubertine gave up milking cows when he joined the Assembly, but remained an active crop and livestock farmer.
[citation needed] On February 26, 2008, Aubertine won an upset victory over William Barclay in a special election in the 48th district of the New York State Senate.
[citation needed] Soon after being elected in February 2008, Aubertine was successful in securing $250 million for improvements at State University of New York campuses in Oswego and Canton.
[7][8] During his November 2008 Senate campaign, Aubertine was criticized for hiring his sister to his staff in violation of State ethics law, though he corrected the problem when notified of the conflict after just a few weeks on the job and later paid back the money she received.
[citation needed] On November 4, 2008, Aubertine defeated Watertown attorney David Renzi with 53% of the vote (52,908 to 46,941) to win re-election to a full term.
He was an anomaly in that he was a man chairing a committee traditionally led by women (Young, Patricia McGee, and Nancy Larraine Hoffmann before and Patty Ritchie after).
[citation needed] Aubertine was mentioned as a leading candidate[10] to run for the House seat representing New York's 23rd congressional district, formerly held by Republican John McHugh, in 2009.