ALBANY — A guilty verdict last week made him a loser, but Joe Percoco is a winner today.

With a vote of 2,718-759, the former gubernatorial aide and new-minted felon came out on top of the championship round of March Badness, the Times Union's inaugural effort to determine the most objectionable public official in recent New York state history.

Nearly 3,5000 ballots were cast in the final round, while the full five rounds of competition attracted more than 7,600 votes.

Percoco beat out Cinderella boy Steve McLaughlin, the former Assemblyman and current Rensselaer County executive who beat out an impressive round of opponents to earn the right to take on Gov. Andrew Cuomo's former executive deputy secretary, who was convicted last week of swapping $300,000 in bribes for official favors.

Many commentators who watched the March Badness tournament noted that Percoco might have benefited from "recency bias," though McLaughlin's misdeeds — using obscene and abusive language to berate a top aide, and allegedly asking another lawmaker's aide for nude photos (the latter a charge he denies) — all came to light in the past seven months.

Thanks to all who participated. Let's not do this again, shall we?

Cathleen F. Crowley contributed to this report.