New York’s Bizarro Congressional Election Results
The GOP wanted a harbinger of 2010; the Democrats hoped to keep the Obama magic going. Both were disappointed.
And yet again, we wait.
Following an abbreviated but frenetic election season, the race to replace Kirsten Gillibrand in New York’s 20th Congressional district seat came crashing to a somehow appropriate halt on the eve of April Fool’s Day. Money in previously unseen amounts had come flowing into a district which rarely garnered significant national attention in the past. Party leaders from both camps made personal appeals to the voters, with the president himself coming off the bench to aid Scott Murphy in his battle against Republican Assemblyman Jim “Jimmy Disco” Tedisco. When this reporter went to cover one of their debates in Saratoga Springs, I found a “press box” suited for the usual dozen journalists packed to the rafters and out into the hall with correspondents from CNN, Fox, MSNBC, and the rest of the alphabet soup of mainstream media.
On the evening of March 31, all of the partisan pushing and shoving came to naught. When the final precincts reported in, Murphy held the slimmest of leads, announced as either 65 or 59 votes depending upon which published report you preferred to read. In a race where national Democrats hoped to demonstrate the president’s continued star power and the GOP sought an omen of midterm success to come, the result was disappointing for both camps.
A proclamation of victory, unsatisfying though it may be, could still lie a fair distance down the road. Roughly ten thousand absentee ballots were requested for this event which must be received and counted by April 7. An additional week is allowed for voters on active duty in the military. Article II of the State Constitution mandates a rapid count and conclusion to the electoral process specifically to avoid mischief with the ballot box once the votes are collected. This, however, has not prevented numerous legal scholars, authors, and law firms from making a fine living dissecting the Empire State’s arcane election laws.
Should the final numbers remain this close, provisions exist for challenges to the result. In extremis, precedent is in place for the courts to demand a new election if sufficient flawed or fraudulent ballots are found to have turned the tide of a close race. Any reasonable challenge from the losing candidate will at least be heard by a judge before the final result is certified. In any event, the odds of seating a winner shortly after April 13 appear slim unless one of them can rack up a lead of several hundred votes from the absentee ballots.
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Jazz Shaw is a heretical, Northeastern former RINO and regular columnist at The Moderate Voice. He can be reached at jazzshaw@gmail.com.
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22 Comments
1. ashok:Thanks for sharing this! I hadn’t heard that Tedisco failed to position himself appropriately and so was on the receiving end when he could have easily been more aggressive.
Apr 2, 2009 - 12:53 am 2. David Thomson:Jim Tedisco is an awful candidate. He may even be worse than John McCain. Is the state of New York so liberal that the GOP establishment can’t do any better than this mediocrity? Tedisco may yet win this contest—but a center-right candidate would have easily defeated Scott Murphy. I am also once again cynically reminded why New York’s economy sucks so badly. The majority of its citizens are idiots. They deserve their grief. Those like myself who live in Texas must make sure their self-inflicted troubles don’t become our own.
Apr 2, 2009 - 4:16 am 3. Northern Light:I think Tedisco may pull this one out. The margin is so close that absentee ballots will probably decide it. If the military is still pro-Republican soldiers serving abroad might just save Tedisco’s (not to mention Michael Steele’s) bacon.
The big question is will this be decided before the Minnesota senate race. If everyone gets enough lawyers neither candidate will be get a chance to be seated. 2010 is just arouond the corner.
Apr 2, 2009 - 4:25 am 4. ajacksonian:Examining NY State election laws?
‘Abandon hope all ye who enter here’… that is the sign above the door, I believe. Byzantium could have learned a thing or two from NY State.
Apr 2, 2009 - 4:57 am 5. Craig:“Should the final numbers remain this close, provisions exist for challenges to the result…”
Heavens to Al Franken…say it ain’t so!
Apr 2, 2009 - 6:31 am 6. AThinkingPerson:Could the Obama magic be over? Was there really ever any magic or was it lack of education in the voting electorate? We got what we voted for. We knew he was a dishonest person before he took office. Why we’re surprised he backtracks and goes against promises and is trying to run American into the ground should not be news to anyone.
Now we’re truly left with HOPE-ing for a CHANGE.
Apr 2, 2009 - 7:06 am 7. MarkD:The entire might of the Democrat political machine was arrayed against a lackluster Republican candidate and the result was… A tie?
I suspect 2010 will look a lot like 1994, if the Republicans actually stand for anything. Otherwise, we won’t recognize this country by 2012.
Apr 2, 2009 - 7:24 am 8. Войска ПВО:..this election may be a metaphor for what’s wrong with both parties. Two candidates — both tepid — failed to draw voters resoundingly to their side despite the heavyweights from their party yearning for a showcase victory.
When, oh, when will the Republicans realize that the warmed-over vomit that they offer will not be enough to offset the excrement that the Democrats are foisting off on the American [Idol] public? Just give us one (one!) candidate with a set and a spine who will stand up for common sense and the common man and he or she will have legions behind him or her.
..but we go through this Kabuki where there’s always some flaw in the (R) guy to be exploited by the lapdog MSM.
Me? I’m clinging to my guns and religion until one comes along.
Apr 2, 2009 - 7:25 am 9. TOhio:This tells me what everyone has been saying all over the blogosphere for weeks now – Republicans need to fight!
Why in the world would the Republican Party run someone who is obviously a moderate and unwilling to be aggressive? Hopefully someone in party leadership will get the message from this race that in order to win and WIN BIG we need REAL CONSERVATIVES on the ballot who are willing to fight for the country as though their life depended on it – because it does!
The country’s future is at stake and we are running wimps. Lord help us all.
Apr 2, 2009 - 9:04 am 10. sharonsj:I think this shows we are fed up with both parties. Maybe we should follow Bernie Sanders’ lead and become Socialists? I was about to say that things can’t be worse than they are now, but I take that back. Things will only get worse because we have yet to see change we can believe in. So far it’s business as usual.
Apr 2, 2009 - 9:15 am 11. Pee Wee Herman, Community Organizer:Meanwhile in Minnesota…
Apr 2, 2009 - 10:36 am 12. Pops in Vienna:This race should have never been close. Dud spud or not, Tedisco should have won big due to a huge turn out of irate Republicans and Indies. I think the rage and despair about the current state of affairs is limited to the conservative blogosphere.
The tea parties, for the most part , have very low turn outs. If it wasn’t for talk radio you’d hear very few criticisms of the current president. Michael Stelle goes on TV and calls his own party Nazis. Sorry, this isn’t a winning combination.
First, get rid of the RNC Chairman and put in a fighter. Then recruit good candidates who have passion and know the issues. Articulate clear, conservative positions and consolidate the base. Reach out for 5% of the fence sitters and we’ll win everytime.
Apr 2, 2009 - 10:43 am 13. AThinkingPerson:Where’s ACORN and their illegal voting methods when you need them? I’m sure they’re loading up their buses full of homeless and heading to New York just in case there’s a call for a do-over.
Apr 2, 2009 - 11:49 am 14. Dave (the rational Dave):With a partisan political hack like Holder running the DOJ, I doubt that the Dems feel any reluctance to pulling out all the election fraud stops on this one. They have gotten too good at getting the right judge to put a finger on the scale. It happened in Washington state a few years ago, it’s happening in the Minnesota Senate Race and will probably happen again in this race.
Apr 2, 2009 - 12:55 pm 15. Kurt:Well, Pops, I’d say it’s a matter of perspective. From the pictures I’ve seen, the Tea Parties don’t have small turnouts. They might not be huge, but they’re definitely not small. Or to put it another way, the turnouts for leftist rallies (anti-war, anti-AIG, pro-”stimulus,” what have you) in most places is absolutely miniscule in comparison, but that doesn’t keep those rallies from being one of the leading stories on most evening newscasts.
Apr 2, 2009 - 2:41 pm 16. Chris:I think the race being even close for the Republican is a pretty big story. Gillibrand (Dem) won that district 52-38 in November. 50-50 is a HUGE shift. If Tedisco really did run a lousy campaign, then it’s all the more significant.
Apr 2, 2009 - 3:45 pm 17. Chris:Make that 62-38.
Apr 2, 2009 - 3:47 pm 18. Terry:Personally, I think the reason Tedisco and other Republicans don’t seem to hit on issues that should favor them is because the candidates themselves don’t favor those positions. Conservatives and libertarians have solid ideas for directing legislatures, but do not hold sufficient sway amongst Republicans. An important distinction is that while conservatives and libertarians are found in the Republican party, but not in the Democrat party, the GOP is a ‘right-leaning’ party only in comparison to the ‘left-leaning’ Democrat party. Republicans pick and choose from conservative/libertarian concepts to be elected. Paraphrasing Anne Coulter, Democrats and Republicans both run on conservative principles; Republicans sometimes disappoint their constituents, Democrats always do.
Apr 4, 2009 - 5:18 am 19. William:Have the votes from the Cemetery District been counted yet?
Apr 4, 2009 - 7:44 am 20. whyyeseyec:The recount(s) will go on and on and on until the dem candidate wins.
It seems as if every election everywhere in the country is split 50-50. Co-ink-e-dink or not?
Apr 4, 2009 - 11:56 am 21. Chris:Are you kidding me? On the biggest issue dividing the parties, the $800 billion dollar stimulus bill – a bill opposed by every Republican member of the House and nearly every Republican member of the Senate – this man couldn’t make up his mind how he would vote?? I think he deserves to lose. If I were a Republican in his district, I honestly don’t know if I would have gone out on election day to vote for him, I would have been so upset. This is no big loss for Republicans if this man doesn’t prevail.
Okay, I get it, the northeast is pretty liberal. I used to live there. So you have to be pro-choice, pro-federal funding of stem cell research and such. But he doesn’t have the intestinal fortitude or the brains to explain to his constituents why this pork-laden budget buster should be opposed? Loser. Bad loser.
Apr 4, 2009 - 3:08 pm 22. Chris:Okay, I just looked up the bio’s of the two candidates in the race. I would say Tedisco’s is unimpressive. An expert in special ed. An athletic director of a high school. Union College degrees. The CV doesn’t mean everything, of course. (E.g., Ronald Reagan.)
Compare Murphy: Harvard, assistant to a governor, principal in a large investment firm. It looks like Dems recruited a quality candidate and Steele just got the one most available. I am not impressed with Steele.
Apr 4, 2009 - 3:22 pm