The winner of the special election in New York is Jim Tedisco, although you would never know by reading the mainstream press. Tedisco represents the 20th US Congressional District (NY-20) in New York, a seat that was vacated when Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand was appointed to the open U.S. Senate seat.
Jim Tedisco Wins House Seat
Granted, Tedisco is only even with Scott Murphy on election night March 31st, or technically even slightly behind by 70-some-odd votes. However, ten thousand absentee ballots were mailed before Murphy last minute surge, and the majority of those were sent to GOP households. The mathematics tell us that the NY House race winner is James Tedisco by a cozy percent unless the Democrats manufacture votes as what happened in the Al Franken Minnesota Senate contest. As a precaution, Tedisco has successfully sued to impound all ballots.
Scott Murphy was heavily campaigned for by Democrats including Barack Obama himself in recent days. Obama was confident enough in Murphy’s prospects that he laid a little political capital on the line by recording robo-calls on his behalf. The latest two polls in the race showed Murphy leading by 2 points, overtaking a strong lead that Tedisco enjoyed early.
The New York house race was cast by the two candidates as a referendum on the Obama spending plans, sheepishly described as a “stimulus plan” by Obama and alternatively described as a waste of our money by opponents like Jim Tedisco. Unfortunately for Tedisco, he was only tepid in his opposition to Obama early on, which appears to have lost him some votes among an angry electorate in upstate New York’s NY-20 district.
The spinsters have been out in full force this week. The GOP establishment began preparing for defeat, while Murphy and Team Obama began gloatefully whispering about his prospects. Now with defeat in sight, Democrats are attempting to claim a moral victory by running close in a GOP-leaning district. They don’t want us to remember that the prior elected incumbent was a Democrat congresswoman.
The sting of the defeat is clearly lessened for Obama because of the close vote on election night. A tied contest was declared by the press, so inferences in the headlines are that the nation’s first referendum on the Obama presidency is a tossup. When Tedisco is declared the winner later, it will hardly make the news and the analysis of the results will not be so potent.
But this is the first significant election since Obama took office, the first one in which he attempted to spread coattails, and in truth a crushing defeat for Democratic political operatives. There is no moral victory in losing an election you expected to win.
As for the socialist agenda, there is now one less tree in Obama’s receding rainforest. The GOP will take solace from the narrow victory and build from here.
Jim Tedisco’s biography is unspectacular. He was born James Nicholas Tedisco in 1950 which makes him 58 years old. His most notable work in the New York legislature is on missing children, and he is credited with forcing Democrat Governor Elliot Spitzer’s scandalous resignation.
Tedisco – Murphy Race (Video)
April 22nd, 2009 at 6:17 am
I wonder whether the author of the original post will print a retraction now that it appears that Murphy is indeed the winner, never mind the fact that race was never clearly in favor of Tedisco.
Never let the facts get in the way of an opinion, no?
April 24th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
And today we officially, learn that Tedisco LOST… which also confirms the crappy journalism that some posters here are allowed to get away with (others do fine).
And to those ranting about Obama’s job performance, you are in the small minority:
http://www.gallup.com/poll/117853/First-100-Days-Obama-Meets-Exceeds-Expectations.aspx
79% rate his first 100 days as “ok” or better, and 56% say “good” or better. Heck even purely Republicans have 59% have him at “ok” or better.
There’s your “reality check”.
April 25th, 2009 at 9:14 am
Dear McCain- Thank you for this cogent analysis of Tedisco’s narrow victory and why even a narrow victory has enormous political significance. I eagerly await the follow-up analysis of how the mainstream media continues to spin this, and how even RINO Tedisco has fallen for that spin. I think we have Congressman Murphy right where we want him.
April 26th, 2009 at 7:24 am
I guess it pays to read the Mainstream Press to avoid Lies like these. Or, are you still congratulating Tedisco on his Glorious Victory?
Please visit my Blog: “Conservatives Are America’s Real Terrorists”
http:/conservativesarecommunistss.blogspot.com/
April 26th, 2009 at 11:42 am
Hey, great logic and rationale… it turns out you were right; tedisco indeed won… oh wait, no he just conceded April 24, 2009. Just goes to show how smart people on the right are.
http://www.bizjournals.com/albany/stories/2009/04/20/daily62.html