Friday, April 24, 2009

So, How's That Comeback Going?

November 2006: Democrat Kristen Gillibrand is elected to a U.S. House seat in New York's 20th Ditrict, which had been a solidly Republican stronghold since the 1970's.

January 2009: Gillibrand is appointed to the U.S. Senate to fill the seat vacated by Hillary Clinton. This results in a special election to fill the seat in NY-20. The contest is between NY Assemblyman and Minority Leader Jim Tedisco and a relatively unknown Democrat, venture capitalist Scott Murphy. Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele describes the contest to take back the seat and restore Republican dominance in NY-20 as a "battle royale." House Majority Leader John Boehner says “This election ... is a giant opportunity for us to let America know that America is on our side.” TheHill.com reports that "Eighty-two Republican House members wrote checks for Tedisco, leading a NRCC spokesman to brag, “This is not only an indication of Jim Tedisco’s strength as a candidate, it’s proof that members are invested in our overall plans to fight back to the majority.”

February 17th, 2009: The RNC spends $80,000 on a new television spot supporting Tedisco.

March 2, 2009: Tedisco runs negative ads that paint Murphy as "the poster boy for everything that's wrong with Wall Street."

March 17, 2009: RNC sends more cash to NY-20. After weeks of refusing to say whether or not he would support the Obama stimulus package, Tedisco comes out against it.

March 27th, 2009: pollsters announce that Tedisco has managed to turn a 12 point lead into a 4 point deficit in a matter of four weeks, even though Republicans outnumber Democrats by over 70,000 registered voters in the district. The poll also notes that Tedisco's campaign was considered "more negative" by a 44-25 percent margin.

April 14, 2009: a close election results in a number of legal challenges, including Tedisco's campaign challenging the legality of Gillibrand's ballot.

April 24: Republican candidate Jim Tedisco concedes the race.

Again, The Hill.com: "The RNC spent $280,000 compared to $10,000 from the Democratic National Committee, and the NRCC invested $871,681 to the DCCC’s $591,591. Outside forces favoring Tedisco dumped $2.06 million into the race, compared to just $1.23 million from pro-Murphy groups. And Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani, among others, lent their fundraising heft to their party’s candidate."

Heh.

Bets on how long Mr. Steele will remain Chairman? Bets on how many Republicans will insist that what went wrong is that they weren't conservative enough, weren't negative enough, and didn't spend enough money on attack ads?

It's not working, geniuses. Try something else.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

While they still think that the con of trickle down economics works, and an alternative is NO! they will still be behind.

charlie stella said...

I can't help but notice how much you need me here, JD ... a voice different from the choir ... so anonymous be damned ...

You asked how that comeback is going?

While I'll veer away from the particular issue you mentioned, I will point to rumors of GM dumping Pontiac after this government gave them all that gelt ...

Warms my heart to know our government and the party of the people continues to look out for the little guy. Another great investment, this one by the collective government (but bolstered by Obambi, et al) ... Will the Pontiac chief get to walk with $20 million too? That's one question I have. The other one would be ... how's that comeback going?

Tom Panek said...

What do the Republobrates not understand about NY politics? Why did they even think the voters would replace a democrat with Republobrate? After all, this is the state that elected a woman Democrat from out of state to represent them in the U.S. Senate not once, but twice, and then supported her bid for the Presidency. Conservative as NY might be (and it is, despite its blue hue), they're no fools. Tedisco never stood a chance in that district. Party means nothing to them, but politics do. Look for Murphy's local connections - they'll tell the tale of his success. To quote Glen Frey, "And it's business as usual, whoa whoa."

JD Rhoades said...

I can't help but notice how much you need me here, JD ... a voice different from the choirYeah, Charlie, no one's dared disagree with me since you've been gone.

Welcome back.

Tom, this part of NY had been solidly Republican before Gillibrand, who basically got elected because the Republican incumbent was revealed as a wife-beater. Tedisco was up fourteen points early on, so I'd disagree that he never had a chance. In fact, it should have been a Tedisco walk-over till he went negative and came out against the stimulus.

charlie stella said...

Thanks, JD. I have noticed you only managed to piss off some newscaster since I'm gone and your hellions just don't have anyone to "kick around anymore." (Hopefully they'll recognize that as the Nixon quote it is and just me having some extra fun).

On NY Politics ... speaking of the Clintons/conservatives there was a district in upstate NY that was totally Hasidic and had voted Republican over and over and over ... until the rabbi leader of the community got himself in some jam (not sure what it was) ... then Clinton pardoned him and guess which way that community has voted ever since?

And don't forget that NY voted, let's see ... Republican in 4 consecutive mayoral elections (even though they were considered liberal republicans/and Bloomberg kind of picks a party de jour anyway), it reacted very conservatively to Dinkins after his term of office.

Here's a common theme (for what it is worth) ... law enforcement officials (obviously) are usually very conservative ... and so are the criminals they tend to prosecute. Go figure.

What does any of it have to do with district voting ... that's obvious enough. It's what can you do for ME that counts (and shove your party loyalty).

I kind of like that. It helps to explain why Iran, North Korea, etc., want their own nukes ... and how the hell can anyone blame them (never mind stop them)?