From CNN -
It took nearly a month, but Democrat Scott Murphy has won the battle for New York's 20th Congressional District.
Republican James Tedisco conceded Friday and called Murphy to offer congratulations. The race was too close to call after the March 31 election.
But as absentee and overseas ballots poured in over the past few weeks, Murphy's lead grew.
The seat had been held by conservative Democrat Kristen Gillibrand until she was appointed to serve out Hillary Clinton's term in the U.S. Senate when Clinton became Secretary of State for the Obama Administration.
The Reps have a registration advantage of almost 70K in the district, so this was seen as a likely pick up for them. Their candidate, Jim Tedisco, even had a double digit lead in polls taken a few weeks before the special election.
It was close, but they still lost the lead and the race.
Look for RNC chair Michael Steele to lose his job over this race.
1 comment:
You missed the big story from this race though.
Tedisco was cruising comfortably ahead (one early poll had him up 20 points, in a six week election cycle) until Murphy said up front that he supported President Obama's stimulus plan (the one every single Republican in the house voted against.)
Tedisco was instantly thrown on the defensive. At first he refused to say whether he would have voted against the stimulus if he were in Congress or if he would have become the only Republican in the house to vote for it. When that answer didn't fly he went ahead and said he would have voted against it.
The rest of the election was about support for (or opposition to) President Obama's economic plan, and it is in that framework that Murphy made up a 20 point deficit.
There is a message in his comeback for Republicans who are lining up to oppose President Obama on the economy and the budget.
There is also a message in Tedisco's graceful concession speech and refusing advice to drag this on through the courts. That message is for Norm Coleman.
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