Democrat Scott Murphy Wins House Race
Some happy news from New York State, where Democrats have retained the seat vactated by Kristen Gillibrand when she left the House to take the Senate seat of Hillary Clinton.
The very-public fumbling by our hapless Governor to appoint a replacement for Clinton in the US Senate was widely-expected to create an opening for Republicans to win back one badly-needed seat in the US House.
This US House seat had been held by Republicans for decades.
The conservative Democrat, Kristen Gillibrand, won this seat from a Republican who was defeated in part because of his arrest for drunk driving. (He was in the news again during the recount, for the same charge.)
Registered Republicans out-number registered Democrats by a 196,000 to 125, 000 margin in this House district. Scott Murphy, the Democratic candidate, had never held public office and was employed as a fund manager. He struggled to gain name recognition while the reputation of financial executives was tanking across the nation.
Michale Steele, who speaks for the Republican National Committee on days that Rush Limbaugh is in rehab, claimed that this race was the highest priority for the Republican Party and that it was a referendum on President Obama.
A huge proportion of Republican campaign cash (which is precious and rare) was devoted to this contest.
Fortunately for the citizens of New York (and the nation), the Republicans proceded in their usual bumbling, tone-deaf manner.
The Republican candidate, James Tedisco, was the minority leader in the NY Assembly, and he began the race with a 20-point lead in the polls and a much-higher name recognition than his opponent who few voters could identify.
Tedisco is well-known in New York, and a nastier example of shrill, slogan-wielding, fundamentalism would be hard to find in the state.
As the race progressed, all the usual Republican attack tactics of "socialism", "big government", "anti-family", "soft on terror" charges were made. But, Scott Murphy was a dogged campaigner who refused to be baited by the lame and tired accusations that had been hurled without any success in the McCain-Palin campaign fiasco.
On Election Day, the race was too-close to call. All people of goodwill were hopeful that Scott Murphy's advance in popularity each week of the campaign would prove decisive in the end.
And it was.
The closeness of the race required a recount, regardless of the large number of absentee ballots. The Republicans boasted, for reasons that were never quite clear to me, that the absentee ballots were "guaranteed" to seal the victory for Tedisco.
That unhappy fate was avoided. The margin of victory for Democrat Scott Murphy continued to rise.
On Friday, James Tedisco conceded the race.
Thus, the US House now has 256 energized Democrats to 178 dispirited Republicans, with one vacant seat.
The House Race in Crain's New York Business
"I expected a Republican win, because of the structural factors," said Gerald Benjamin, director of the Center for Research, Regional Education and Outreach at SUNY New Paltz and an expert in upstate politics. The Democrat's win, he added, "suggests that there's no safe Republican territory in New York, ..."
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Comments: 12
Big "Amen" to that, Spartan.
I am still amused at the smug, hypocritical way that Coleman called for an immediate concession "for the good of Minnesota" when Franken appeared to have lost the election due to the enormous number of bogus vote challenges issued by the Coleman campaign.
They have become so insular that they are out of touch with reality. "
I have come to the same conclusion, Jim.
It seems as though the GOP is stuck eternally in all the tired modes of the failed Bush administration.
They are still trotting out the delusional Dick Cheney, for heaven's sake.
I believe you are correct, Chris.
In this special election, the GOP grossly miscalculated their ability to "buy" voter interest and sympathy.
Well, I hope they take a second look at that sentiment and learn something.
What on earth are you raving about, Christopher?
The only persons threatening to leave new York are donald Trump and Rush Limbaugh, and volunteers have already stepped forward to pay their moving expenses.
The financial troubles of the Catholic Church are entirely of their own making. They don't need any help from New York State to enter bankruptcy -which, for the Archdiocese of New York, is richly deserved.
Is it a coincidence that the delusional ravings of right wingnuts all have the same elements?
And the idiotic Senator from Oklahoma (oops, that could be either of them), and the pasty-faced Mitch McConnell (whose wife, please God, is finally going to be indicted for the rape of a cabinet Department, and ...but, the numbers HAVE diminsished since the last Congress.