Wednesday, September 14, 2011

I guess this makes up for NY-26 - Politico: "Twin defeats spark Democratic fears."  According to the article, the mood among Democrat officials was "something short of panic."

1 comment:

NY-26 said...

Extrapolating national meaning from a special election is always dicey... but what the heck, let's roll. In that sense, NY-26 was more notable because it was spurred by a philosophical division within the Republican Party that has not yet been resolved. Many primaries will be played out along the same dynamic next year, while few look to be contested on a Congressman's cyber-junk.

In New York, they've been calling David Weprin a "lackluster placeholder" candidate who was picked because he wouldn't make waves, or cause trouble for his surrounding incumbents if the seat were eliminated by redistricting next year. It certainly will be now, following Bob Turner's win.

That imminent districting doom is the reason why so little money was donated on either side until a late face-saving spend from the DNC. (Bad move... the face died.)

The NY Daily News says the election was a "two-way race to the bottom" between two "lousy campaigns," and had little if anything to do with Obama. It described Turner's and Weprin's respective advertising as "irrelevant to the economic and fiscal issues that should be center stage." The News is a conservative paper.

This is an obvious setback for the Democrats in that it interrupts the string of special election success the Dems have been having, which may have some effect. The GOP is within their rights to crow. But a setback was guaranteed to happen next year anyway when NYC lost a Congressional seat.