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Ear to the Ground

Dems Win N.Y. Consolation Prize

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Posted on Nov 4, 2009

They may have lost the governorships of New Jersey and Virginia, but Democrats expanded their majority in the House of Representatives by one seat Tuesday. Bill Owens won a surprise victory after a bizarre race that saw a third-party conservative candidate drive the Republican in this staunchly GOP district out of the running and into the arms of the Democrats. 

A lot of people made a lot of inferences about this race. It was supposed to take the temperature of President Obama’s success (by tying his fortunes to a Democrat in a district that’s been red for 100 or so years, no less) and simultaneously represent the great (and tiresome) schism of the Republican Party. In the end, it probably had much more to do with a lousy economy and robocalls.  —PZS

AP via Google:

Republicans hadn’t lost in the region in more than a century. Owens defeated Hoffman despite a 45,000-voter registration edge for Republicans and big-name endorsements for Hoffman from former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, former Republican Sen. Fred Thompson and others. Hoffman had rallied an unexpected level of support in the final days of the campaign, ultimately forcing Scozzafava to quit when he surged past her in the polls.

“This is only one fight in the battle, people,” Hoffman said before a gathering of supporters in Saranac Lake, N.Y., after conceding the race. “Let’s keep the fight going. Let’s make sure our voices are heard.”

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By Ed Harges, November 4 at 6:34 pm #

Republicans are now insisting that Scozzafava was not a centrist, but an outright
liberal.

Well, OK: the Democrat got 49% of the vote, and the liberal Scozzafava got over
5%. That means that 54+% of the vote want to the more liberal candidates, in this
historically Republican district, even with all of Palin’s “help”.

Looks like the liberal trend is clear, at least in this locality.

(But then there was the Maine thing, so I don’t know what to think, really.)

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By Blackspeare, November 4 at 6:24 pm #

This was really a dopey race.  Scozzafava withdrew from the race and gave her support to the Democratic candidate, but in effect she almost gave the election to the conservative republican.  If she didn’t still get 5% of the vote, Hoffman probably would have won.  If she so oppose Hoffman, then she should have stayed in the race and split the republican vote assuring a democratic win hands down!  I guess it’s true what they say about upstate New Yorkers!!!

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By Folktruther, November 4 at 2:39 pm #

Hoffman lost the election but he won the ideological power struggle.  Dem strategists and truthers don’t consider that important because all they are concerned with is winning elections.  But peace supporters should be because the Dem will lose the next election in a overwhelming Gop district in two years, and guess who is going to be the long time Congressman for them in the coming decades.

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By grumpynyker, November 4 at 1:43 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

All I have to say is God Damn you New Yorkers who
reelected Ariel Sharon Bloomberg.  Don’t come crying to
this website when his developer cronies get around to
gentrifying your enclave and you can’t afford to shop
at Whole Foods/Trader Joe’s anymore.

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By Tom, November 4 at 5:35 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

Haha, Hoffman. Haha, Palin and Armey and Limbaugh. A Democrat wins a House seat held by Republicans since the 1850s, thanks to your backing his conservative opponent. Hahahahaha.

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By thebeerdoctor, November 4 at 5:26 am #

This makes me think of the late Frederick Exley. I wonder what he would have said after witnessing his fellow upstate citizens decide that a candidate who doesn’t even live in the district, get rejected by the voters, despite receiving a ringing endorsement from that great geographic expert, the former Governor of Alaska.

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