N.Y. Race Too Close to Call

Posted on Apr 1, 2009

nytimes.com

Voters in New York’s 20th District will have to keep waiting to find out who their representative in the U.S. House will be. After a special election, the Democrat led by just 65 votes, with thousands of absentee ballots still to count. The contest received national attention and was seen as a test of President Obama and his agenda, though the district skews Republican.

Update from TPM: “As the standard process of proofreading the vote spreadsheets has been conducted, Democrat Scott Murphy’s lead over Republican Jim Tedisco has actually shrunk from 65 votes to 25 in the latest AP numbers.”

New York Times:

Mr. Murphy, a Missouri native unknown in the district until he began running television ads in February, faced a huge Republican registration advantage and an advertising onslaught by outside conservative groups. But he raised enough money to significantly outspend Mr. Tedisco in a race where voters complained that both sides went negative early and often.

Mr. Murphy closely aligned himself with President Obama, who narrowly won the district in November; Mr. Murphy also won support by promoting the stimulus package. Mr. Tedisco, who eventually came out against the stimulus, struggled to articulate a compelling economic message early on, but capitalized on outrage over bonuses for financial executives, portraying Mr. Murphy as sympathizing with Wall Street financiers more than ordinary upstate families.

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