Democrat Scott Murphy wins the race in the congressional district of NY-20 in upstate New York formerly held by Kirsten Gillibrand, now Senator Gillibrand. Republican Jim Tedisco conceded just over three weeks from the election date, down by less than 400 votes of over 160,000 cast with no hope of catching Murphy with only a few hundred absentee ballots left to count.
One well-known local commentator called it a humiliating defeat for Tedisco, who was the State Assembly Minority Leader prior to this election. He was expected to win in a cakewalk against a Murphy who had never run for political office before, but ran a great campaign anyway. The Republicans in general, and RNC chair Michael Steele in particular have egg on their faces over this one.
GOP congressional candidate Jim Tedisco has conceded the congressional race in the 20th district. Tedisco moments ago called Democrat Scott Murphy to concede and Murphy has declared victory.
Murphy will be issuing a press release shortly, and will organize a press event with volunteers tomorrow in Glens Falls. The location has not yet been determined.
Here's the DCCC's remarks:
“In trying to win the NY-20 special election, the RNC, NRCC, and their Republican allies went all in on the losing gamble that voters would prefer their ‘just say no’ approach to President Obama’s bold plans to get the economy back on track.
“Scott Murphy’s victory in this district where Republicans outnumber Democrats by more than 70,000 represents a rejection of the obstructionist agenda and scare tactics that have become the hallmark of House Republicans.
The latest word on the street is that if he fails to deliver NY-20, a Republican district, he will be ousted, but Tedisco has a solid lead in the polls.
According to multiple former high-level RNC staffers familiar with the dynamics involved, Steele is unlikely to survive in the post if favored Republican Jim Tedisco loses his open-seat race to Democrat Scott Murphy. The special election, scheduled for March 31, is to fill a vacancy left when Kirsten Gillibrand took Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat. If Tedisco loses, the ex-staffers said, “Steele is done.” Completely, definitively?
In all likelihood, NY-20 will turn Republican no matter who had won the RNC job, but that won't give Steele a reprieve for very long.
If Tedisco had won, Republicans and the media would be screaming that Obama's leadership caused the win for him and that the Democratic Party is in BIG trouble. The media would have done segment after segment asking the question, Is President Obama's agenda in trouble? And then he would have had to defend himself over and over again.Let's see how it plays out in the media.
And now for the some comedy musings of Rep. Pete Sessions:
Rep. Pete Sessions (Texas), chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, said that although Tedisco came up short that his message of fiscal discipline provided GOPers a blueprint on which to run next year.
"Since Election Day, we continue to hear the growing chorus of frustrated and concerned citizens who demand more from their government than profligate spending and mountains of debt that will be paid for in higher taxes by our children and grandchildren," said Sessions. "Although Jim was unsuccessful in his hope to change Washington, he has shed light on our Party's efforts to win back the majority in the House."
Chris Cillizza gives a mild response to the outcome, but does say:
As we have said before, the closeness of the result makes it tough to draw too many national conclusions from this race. One thing is for sure: this is an opportunity lost for Republicans.
With the Teabaggers leading the way, Tedisco never had a chance.
What the results of the "too close to call" election in NY-20 tells us is that it's a huge win for President Obama and another repudiation of Republicans in Congress. With a 70,000 voter advantage and Republicans spending almost double in Tedisco's district, the fact that Murphy leads by under a hundred votes is pretty amazing. Nobody I talked to thought there was a remote chance that Murphy had a shot at this.
"From 21 points down to securing a majority of the vote tonight, congratulations to Scott Murphy who ran an extraordinary campaign focused on his record as a successful businessman who helped to create jobs and his strong support for President Obama's economic recovery act. As votes continue to be counted, we're confident that Scott Murphy will expand his lead.
"Scott Murphy's strong showing in this district where Republicans outnumber Democrats by more than 70,000 represents a rejection of the obstructionist agenda and scare tactics that have become the hallmark of House Republicans."
The race in the 20th Congressional district between Republican Jim Tedisco and Democrat Scott Murphy is too close to call.With 100 percent precincts reporting, Murphy leads Tedisco by only 59 votes, 77,344 to 77,285.
With nearly 6,000 absentee ballots that will essentially decide the race as of Monday, the election will not be decided at least until April 13.
As of Monday, 5,907 absentee ballots were received by the state Board of Elections out of around 10,000 mailed, according to spokesman Bob Brehm. Absentee ballots must be postmarked by March 30 and received within seven days for regular absentee ballots or 13 days for military and overseas ballots.
This election should have been a slam dunk for the republicans, but when you're a party that is run by RushBo, "stuff happens." At least RushBo is moving out of NY...Or as he says: Drop Dead.
Today is the day that NY-20 votes in the special election. CNN highlighted the race on The Situation Room and asked if it was a referendum on Obama-Nomics. John King looked at past elections in that district and realized while Obama took only 51% of the vote, it's traditionally a Republican district. Bush won it both times.
In one of the last polls taken, the Democratic challenger grabbed a four point lead and that has Tedisco shaking. King downplayed the election and said that if someone only grabs the win with a small percentage of voters then it's no big deal. Hey KING, there are 70,000 more republicans registered there. 70,000. If Tedisco loses it is a BIG DEAL.
Ex-McCaniac Dan Diaz, downplayed the significance of the race with Blitzer as having no national implications because he senses a problem there.
Either way, Michael Spassky Steele has a lot riding on this election because his start as head of the RNC has been so embarrassing. A loss in a republican district will not look too good for the man who never makes any "gaffes." Oh, well, maybe a loss with 70,000 more voters on his side is what he really wants. You can never tell with the chess master.
You can be sure that if Tedisco wins, the cautious stance republicans are taking will shift into a full court press and screamathon about how this election proves America is not behind President Obama when it's a seat that they should easily capture. A lot of us weren't happy with Paterson's choice of Gillibrand because she did hold the seat in a republican district and in essence by picking her, he was giving up the seat to the republican just say no caucus. More shall be revealed. (Updated post)
