Google Ads


Site Stats

NY-20: Jimmy T. Bags 163 Votes but Still on Bottom

by: DavidNYC

Wed Apr 15, 2009 at 8:19 PM EDT


Things just got ugly for Republican Jim Tedisco: The latest numbers from New York State show him picking up just 163 votes in his "stronghold" of Saratoga County, meaning that he still trails by 86 votes overall. Tedisco's camp was hoping Saratoga would put him over the top, so this is a harsh blow - none of the remaining counties were as favorable to the Republican on election night as Saratoga.

Meanwhile, Dem Scott Murphy just got a very favorable ruling from a judge overseeing the case:

Judge James Brands just ruled that most of the over 1,200 contested absentee ballots in the race to replace Kirsten Gillibrand in Congress were objected to improperly based on discrepancies in their applications. This means many more ballots will be counted.

Tedisco's team has been following the Norm Coleman playbook almost to the letter, challenging ridiculous numbers of absentee ballots (including, as you may know, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's). Seeing as Murphy's attorneys argued in favor of counting many of these challenged ballots, this augurs well.

UPDATE: More discussion in BigDust's diary.
DavidNYC :: NY-20: Jimmy T. Bags 163 Votes but Still on Bottom
Tags: , , , (All Tags)
Print Friendly View Send As Email
NY-20: Jimmy T. Bags 163 Votes but Still on Bottom | 96 comments
welcome Rep Scott Murphy, D NY-20
nothing left to send in numbers but Dutchess, Warren, and Washington, all big Murphy counties.

Scott Murphy will be very hard to defeat in this district and look at another new rising star in New York Politics.

Call no man happy until he is dead-Aeschylus

Agreed
And where are the whiners now who were weeping and wailing that "We'll never hold this seat, Patterson's an idiot for appointing Gillibrand, Obama's an idiot for appointing Clinton thus allowing Patterson to appoint Gillibrand," ... etc.
[ Parent ]
lol,
and say that to Gillibrands 2.7 mil raised in two months. Her poll numbers continue to jump.

Call no man happy until he is dead-Aeschylus
[ Parent ]
It was a risky move
Early on in this race our chances didn't look that great.  But thankfully everything worked out.  We held the house seat and Gillibrand seems to be adapting well to a more liberal constituency.
[ Parent ]
I agree
Tedisco gaffed it up pretty well for us and the media bitchslapped him so hard I can still see the mark on his face.  Really, some stars lined up and a lot of hard work put us over the top.  
[ Parent ]
indeed
but you can't credit Murphy enough for a fantastic campaign. Republicans weren't expecting this from a political neophyte and you could tell, caught them flat on the face. Plus they really screwed up campaigning on a conservative platform in a moderate New England district. That kind of thing would have won in the south, where people buy all the negative ad shit. Here their conservative negative ads hurt them more than anything else they did campaigning.

Call no man happy until he is dead-Aeschylus
[ Parent ]
in case it's not a typo
new york is not in new england.  if it's a typo, my bad.

Top ten signs you're an SSPer #1: your favorite song is "Panic At Tedisco" and no one understands what you mean.
[ Parent ]
Well, the northeast.
Next stop: Delaware and New Jersey!

party: Democratic, ideology: moderate, district: CT-01
[ Parent ]
now they are distinctly
not New Englandesque.

Call no man happy until he is dead-Aeschylus
[ Parent ]
for all purposes
it is, same culture, same politics, similar geography, architecture, I'd disagree, I'd classify new england until you got down to Pennsylvania.

Call no man happy until he is dead-Aeschylus
[ Parent ]
You'd be wrong
New England ends somewhere northwest of Albany. Perhaps in this very district.  
[ Parent ]
The Hudson River
I've always felt that New England extends into New York as far as the Hudson River.

Which yes, cuts right through this district and leaves it half in and half out of New England if you accept my definition.

Peace,

Andrew... from east of the Hudson River.

[ Parent ]
Yup, I think that's right
North of the NY DMA and east of the Hudson is New England.  
[ Parent ]
Four ... and none
Four NY districts physically border New England: NY-23, NY-20, NY-19, and NY-18.  NY-18 covers lower Westchester and is all NYC suburban.  I can make a better case for CT-4 being excluded from New England than for this district being part of New England (I lived in the district from the mid 80s through the mid 90s).  NY-19 is closer but the areas adjoining CT are still NYC suburban (some mighr say exurban).

The best case is probably NY-23 which covers a huge swath of northern New York.  The quibble here is that at least part of the district extends too far west.  If pushed, I'd put NY-23 in New England and CT-4 and NY-20 in the Northeast.  Btw, every time I see John McHugh's official photo (NY-23) I think he looks like Sam Waterston from Law and Order.

One can make a real good case that some of western NY belongs in the midwest.  No wonder NY is the Empire State.

[ Parent ]
What is DMA?
or "NY DMA"?

party: Democratic, ideology: moderate, district: CT-01
[ Parent ]
I was about to say Defense of Marriage Act
But probably not in this context.
[ Parent ]
Yeah.
I first thought "Defense of Marriage Act" and "Digital Millenium [Copyright] Act", but figured both had to be wrong.  "Department of Motor ???" is probably also wrong.

I'm guessing "??? Metropolitican Area".  Maybe "District Metropolitan Area"?...though it kinda includes a buttload of districts.

party: Democratic, ideology: moderate, district: CT-01

[ Parent ]
Ah I see
"Designated Market Area".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N...

[ Parent ]
Designated Market Area (TV)
[ Parent ]
Well, the Alabama and Ohio parts of Pennsylvania.
I was in Scranton on Saturday, just as a tourist.  The "size" of the place reminded me of Cincinnati, where I lived for a while.  And the place is definitely "bigger" in feeling than Connecticut, where I am now.

And the city's roads are in SERIOUS need of repair.  I assume it's another casualty of the economic downturn...

I visited the Steamtown National Historic Site steam train museum.  That was quite an experience, and a good look into the economy in the first half or so of the 20th century.  And it was touching that one of the train engines now stored in the facility-turned-museum had a 100th birthday (fake) cake set on it.

So I thought, maybe Pennsylvania is made of three things: New England, Ohio, and Alabama.  I've heard that it consists of New England and Alabama before, but I got a distinct feel of "Ohio" when I was there, so I think I'll make the description three states' stereotypes.  Anyone from Pennsylvania care to improve my commentary?

party: Democratic, ideology: moderate, district: CT-01

[ Parent ]
There's no New England part
Pennsylvania has a New Jersey part and an Ohio/WV part. Lancaster and NW isn't really like anywhere else, but it's insanely Republican.
[ Parent ]
"Parts" of Pennsylvania
* New England part: Maybe that's because I've been overexposed to Philly.  I lived there for about a month a decade ago.
* Does "insanely Republican" mean R+6, R+12, or R+18 around here?
* I assume the NJ part is the eastern edge of PA.  What are the OH/WV parts?  And would Lancaster/NWPA be the "Alabama" part, or would it be the "MD-01" part?

party: Democratic, ideology: moderate, district: CT-01
[ Parent ]
Glenn:
What did you make of the Scranton area? I have never been there so I'm curious as to what you thought of it. What are the demographics like? And what is the political culture - do you find it liberal and funky, or dreary and conservative?
[ Parent ]
I was there for only a few hours
probably less time than I was in Idaho when passing through there (and stopping by Idaho Falls to take a few pictures of the Snake River and to find that the tourist info place had already closed up by 5 something PM).

So, in short, I have no idea.  Apart from the fact that Joe Biden is from there.

party: Democratic, ideology: moderate, district: CT-01

[ Parent ]
It's not so much that he ran too conservative
It's that Tedisco ran on nothing.  It took him damn near a month to even formulate an opinion on the stimulus.  ANY position on an issue draws more respect from voters than no position at all.  That's what really did Tedisco in.
[ Parent ]
then it didn't help him that he took the less
popular position, and attacked the stimulus package vocally and with faulty arguments and mistruths.

Call no man happy until he is dead-Aeschylus
[ Parent ]
That's true
But his party gave him no choice there.  100% of republicans in Congress voted against the stimulus.  Had he claimed to support it everyone would have just laughed at him.  No way he would have been the lone republican to support it.
[ Parent ]
would have actually probably
won him the election by buying him lots of kudos with the many liberal Rockefeller Republicans in this district who voted for Murphy instead because Republicans so vocally attacked him for supporting the stimulus with the same faulty arguments they used unsuccessfully nationally.

Call no man happy until he is dead-Aeschylus
[ Parent ]
Well, what would other potential appointments have brought?
* Carolyn McCarthy: NY-04 (D+6) special election.  Probably not going to be competitive, unless the Republicans have a bench there (do they?) and we don't.  Won't make the headlines at all, most likely.
* Carolyn Maloney: NY-14 (D+25) special election.  Definitely not a competitive race.
* Andrew Cuomo: NY-AG post vacated; would that lead to a special election?
* David Paterson: NY-Gov post vacated, who gets shoved in?  In any case, likely R gain.
* DavidNYC: Okay, this sounds like a good idea.

In comparison:
* Kirsten Gillibrand: NY-20 (R+3) special election, becomes extremely close partly due to thin Republican and Democratic benches.  Ran risk of giving one House seat to the Republicans, but also rewarded with probability that they'd still lose and get another nail hammered into their northeastern U.S. shut-out.

Tactically, probably best to have appointed Cuomo or DavidNYC.  But I'm satisfied with the turn of events so far.  We basically did get to build a bench out of nothing in NY-20, and that will help us in the future in upstate NY races.

party: Democratic, ideology: moderate, district: CT-01

[ Parent ]
Cuomo will run for Governor anyway


Call no man happy until he is dead-Aeschylus
[ Parent ]
you forgot Caroline Kennedy in your list.
I also wonder if Cuomo signaled Paterson privately he won't accept a Senate nod. That is, his focus is on Gov.
[ Parent ]
Oops.
* Caroline Kennedy: vacates nothing, but lack of political experience stigma and nepotism get invoked by the press.  Bad picture for Paterson all around.

So probably Paterson's personal best bet was to run with Gillibrand.  She's from upstate, and Paterson was trying to be politically savvy there.  And as shallow as it sounds, she's a woman filling Hillary's seat (you KNOW there are people who complained about that).

Who else did I miss?  Peter King in an hard-to-grasp Xanatos Gambit to get someone into office in order for him to be defeated in two years?

party: Democratic, ideology: moderate, district: CT-01

[ Parent ]
Maloney was clearly the best choice
But KG seems to be getting along OK.
[ Parent ]
not really
geopgraphy counts and the state already has one Long Island Senator, (Schumer).

Call no man happy until he is dead-Aeschylus
[ Parent ]
He's from NYC
And when he was in Congress, he represented an entirely different part of the city than Maloney does. In any case, I guarantee you she could have won statewide, and her seat would have been easy to hold on to.  
[ Parent ]
Republicans have a stronger bench
and Schumer represented Brooklyn and some of the more white, white collar Wall Street areas.

Call no man happy until he is dead-Aeschylus
[ Parent ]
You're kidding me right?
There is no part of Wall Street in any of Schumer's district, nor has there been in any configuration I'm aware of. The 9th is a middle class district that's fairly Jewish--especially in the Democratic primary.

Moreover, the Assembly and Senate districts that overlap Maloney's Congressional district are overwhelmingly held by Democrats. So I don't know what bench you're speaking of.  

[ Parent ]
wait i was thinking of McCarthy


Call no man happy until he is dead-Aeschylus
[ Parent ]
There is
I grew up in Schumer's district...it's Weiner's now.

There are big parts of the district that are filled with Wall Street employees or people who tie their livlihoods to Wall Street...Brighton Beach, Mill Basin, Breezy Point, Howard Beach, Middle Village, Forest Hills.


Liberty Avenue Politics - a place for politics in Southern Queens

[ Parent ]
Schumer's district
is all white collar jewish Brooklyn areas. It was Obama's weakest completely NYC district and seems to have stiffened up against naional Democrats since 9/11.

Call no man happy until he is dead-Aeschylus
[ Parent ]
Meaning what?
I'd eat my hat if any Republican won it any time soon.  
[ Parent ]
I wasn't suggesting that
I was just suggesting it was similar to Long Island and Schumer's always been real invovled in Long Island politics, Tom Suozzi is a proxy of his and I can't help thinking that New York Democrats would better off if he'd beaten Spitzer.

Does Long Island vote in mayoral races? Cause i'm just trying to figure out how Republicans keep winning them by such large margins.

Call no man happy until he is dead-Aeschylus

[ Parent ]
Democratic crossovers
A lot of Democrats vote Republican for mayor, it's been that way since Dinkins...Jewish Democrats and Italian/Irish Democrats almost always vote Republican for mayor because Democrats either run minority candidates or have divisive primaries.

In the case of 2000, the white Democrat won but lost the support of the minority community, then lost the support of many of the white Democrats after 9/11.


Liberty Avenue Politics - a place for politics in Southern Queens

[ Parent ]
I wouldn't
and it's my home district.

All you need is a Republican wave and a strong Republican nominee.


Liberty Avenue Politics - a place for politics in Southern Queens

[ Parent ]
You'd need a damaged Democratic nominee
Who could the Democrats nominate who would lose?
[ Parent ]
a corrupt machine politician?


Call no man happy until he is dead-Aeschylus
[ Parent ]
a minority, for starters
or anyone who's not Jewish

Liberty Avenue Politics - a place for politics in Southern Queens
[ Parent ]
I would be interested to know
whether Hevesi won there in '06. I'd be willing to bet that he did.


[ Parent ]
yeah he did
all the Democrats running statewide won here in 2006.

But in the past, Pataki won the district all three times, Dennis Vacco beat Karen Burnstein there...D'Amato won it, except in 1998 obviously.  

Liberty Avenue Politics - a place for politics in Southern Queens

[ Parent ]
I appreciate the support
But you think NY-Gov would be "Likely R" as an open seat? There might have been some backlash had Paterson appointed himself, but I know you didn't really mean that.

Anyhow, Paterson had a ton of other choices, including the possibility of appointing someone like Judy Kaye as a caretaker.

[ Parent ]
Explanation in case of confusion
"Who gets shoved in?" = I don't know who fills the seat.  I assume it's Malcolm Smith, NY State Senate Majority Leader?  How good would he be at holding the seat?  Who would replace him, in his district and in his majority leader post?

And yes, I actually did mean that there would be backlash against Paterson, though I actually meant for NY-Sen, that Peter "Fucking" King might actually be able to beat him, for example.  For NY-Gov, that should depend on who holds the seat next.

Sorry, I wasn't thinking too clearly at the time.

party: Democratic, ideology: moderate, district: CT-01

[ Parent ]
Malcolm Smith would become Governor
How strong would he be? I don't know. He's only been Majority Leader for a couple of months and minority leader for two years before that.

In this district, it's the most Democratic in the state, so some African-American Democrat...pick any. Also, for replacing him as Majority Leader, probably Jeff Klein of The Bronx.  

Liberty Avenue Politics - a place for politics in Southern Queens

[ Parent ]
NY-04 has a huge Republican bench
it's the Democratic bench that's lacking. McCarthy regularly wins because she gets support in conservative Garden City as well as the typically Democratic parts of the district; Hempstead, Westbury, Uniondale, Freeport...but there's no bench outside of the minority areas.

State Senator Kemp Hannon, a Republican really seen as the likely successor to McCarthy, was challenged last year and nearly lost the seat to Kristen McElroy. She would be the most likely Democratic opponent IMO.

Off the top of my head, I can't think of anyone else. We'd have to win this with someone like Murphy...a political unknown facing someone well known.

Don't forget, Senate Minority Leader Dean Skelos lives in McCarthy's district as well.

As far as the rest, Maloney's district would be an easy hold, but the question is do we get a New Democrat pro-business, pro-Wall Street type or do we get a progressive? Cuomo's replacement would ahve appointed by Paterson, confirmed by the senate

Liberty Avenue Politics - a place for politics in Southern Queens

[ Parent ]
do you think
we have room to make more gains in the state senate in the next few cycles in these strongly Democratic leaning NYC area districts? Especially on Long Island? Because in other southern states once we lost a house the floodgates opened. People switched, excetera. Within two cycles the Republicans would gain a strong majority. Hopefully we'll solidify our hold, even with the Republican gerryamnder on state senate districts, then we can redistrict in 2012 to have more balanced, moderate districts.

Call no man happy until he is dead-Aeschylus
[ Parent ]
I agree with Chad
This was a very risky move. Yes, there are always Chicken Littles [Chickens Little? - Safire] who moan about this sort of thing. But well-placed concerns were more than legitimate, and when you win by a hair, that means you had more than your share of luck.

I was pretty down on this race myself in the early going. I don't know if you are on any DCCC email lists, but what they were sending out at first was really dispiriting - "Tedisco Hypocrisy Watch, Day 8". Very blah attacks. It wasn't until a few things started happening - namely, Tedisco's insane waffling on the stimulus, Murphy's strong fundraising & his development as a candidate - that this race really looked winnable.

[ Parent ]
By the way, where's that troll
who was laughing at us during the initial count liveblogging?

party: Democratic, ideology: moderate, district: CT-01
[ Parent ]
Probably
Teabagging with his friends.
[ Parent ]
As I almost spew my morning coffee onto my keyboard -- thanks Chad!

[ Parent ]
word
Chad seems to have that effect on people.
[ Parent ]
Darn you Chad!
I need to work harder on my snarking skills!

party: Democratic, ideology: moderate, district: CT-01
[ Parent ]
Exactly
Elections need to be followed by proper analysis or they lead to poor future action.  The lesson here, proven many times in 2008, is we can win in Republican districts when the R implodes, and then we can hold them.

This district was almost given away, but we were rescued by one of the poorest R campaigns of the past five years.

[ Parent ]
not neccessarily
it was strong and well organized, spent a buttload of money. It just proved that they are running to far to the right.  

Call no man happy until he is dead-Aeschylus
[ Parent ]
And it wasn't that poor.
They got a greater share of the vote than, Sali in ID-01.

party: Democratic, ideology: moderate, district: CT-01
[ Parent ]
Cmon
Tedisco was a horribly performing candidate.

Sure he wasn't Sali, but that is no measure.  if he would have come out with an articulate reason for opposing the stimulus in the beginning, he would have won.

[ Parent ]
Republicans haven't been
articulate about opposing it period. and he was no different, following their playbook calling it wasteful and unneccessary.

He would have lost by more but what we saw on election night was his base of people who know him well in Saratoga come to bat for him really hard.

Still, you don't like this because of the political risk. I think it was a great movie. It makes Republicans look worse to lose the seat and it adds another rising star to the state Democratic roster. Plus it gives upstate new york a senator, a statewide office period which says to them, "Okay, Democrats aren't going to ignore you anymore, you don't have to vote for Republicans". Plus he appointed a strong, charismatic woman to Clinton's senate seat, young and a strong campaigner. Seems like a big win win for everyone.

Call no man happy until he is dead-Aeschylus

[ Parent ]
Totally wrong conclusion
Murphy did not win.  Tedisco lost.

His dithering over the stimulus and overall poor campaign allowed us to win a seat that we should have lost.

Poor appointment (strictly from a Team Blue perspective).  That is the very clear lesson of this election.  We can't take for granted a lot of the seats we have that are now held by popular incumbents, but that will likely flip when an open seat and the R is not a doofus.

[ Parent ]
Oh come on
You're still whining even when you've been proved wrong. Tedisco ran like a standard Republican on the standard Republican playbook. What this proves is that play book can no longer win the moderate swingish districts they have to hold to  maintain any sort of tenative grip on relevance.

Call no man happy until he is dead-Aeschylus
[ Parent ]
Oh please
LOL, he didn't run the standard playbook, that is absurd.

And I'm not whining.  I'm pointing out that we barely won a seat that we won with 62% just six months ago.

And more to the point, your statement that " that play book can no longer win the moderate swingish districts" is absolutely absurd.  This was a very close election.  The votes broke even.  Victory is +1 vote, but that is not how to judge effective strategy.

We went from 62/38 with a very popular incumbent, to 50/50 running against a guy who didn't have a position on the major issue of the time for a few weeks.

Murphy should be able to hold the seat now, just like Tedisco could have.  Very bad strategy to put a district like this at risk, and having won by maybe 200 votes just proves that.

Thanks Tedisco.  You won this one all by yourself, but you won it for the wrong team.

[ Parent ]
I think you;re beign unfair
giving Murphy no credit whatsoever for running the campaign that enabled him to capitlize on Tedisco's support. And Gillibrand was a popular incumbent, of course the vote totals would fall, and Tedisco had a solid base in the districts population center. He had a very solid base and should have been able to win easily on that alone. That's where Murphy's strengths come in.

And this did prove Republicans can't win on their conservative playbook in a moderate swing districts. They tried, and they tried outspending a Democrat and supporting a well known Republican candidate with a solid base in the districts largest city and County.

Call no man happy until he is dead-Aeschylus

[ Parent ]
Really, what are you talking about?
Where did I give "Murphy no credit whatsoever"?  That's silly.  Murphy ran a fine campaign, which is no part of the issue.

Second, since when is it part of the "conservative playbook" to not state where you stand on an issue for a few weeks?

Third it's just laughable to assert "this did prove Republicans can't win on their conservative playbook in a moderate swing districts" when the dude only lost by a couple hundred votes!!

LOL, c'mon, your points about getting an upstate female senator are very good, and Murphy could be great now and in the future, but let's not go off the deep end here.

We were very lucky to hold this seat, and the most important part of that was Tedisco's horrible dithering on the stimulus which directly lead to his poll numbers going through the floor.  the objective reality is if he had stated his position, either way, immediately and articulately, he would very likely have won... and the gamble to get a female upstate Senator while holding the seat would have failed.

Dodged a bullet thanks to Tedisco, and it may work out very well, but it was a big risk, and it was not needed since obviously there are other women in upstate New York...

[ Parent ]
I'm saying in the end
Tedisco conceded and ran on the Republican line on the stimulus package and while he did lose by a few hundred votes his performance is more do to his solid base in Saratoga which bailed him out from a true blow out as Murphy outperformed Democratic benchmarks in every other county.

Call no man happy until he is dead-Aeschylus
[ Parent ]
You're not making an apples to apples comparison here
Remember a few things:

1. Gillibrand was actually extremely popular in the district

2. This is actually a traditionally Republican area (before finally beating him in 2006, John Sweeney was routinely winning 60%-70% of the vote).

3. Obama may well have been extremely popular in a lot of places, but NY-20 wasn't exactly one of them, yes he won it, but only 51-48 (and this was also a district which Bush won by 8 points in 2004). Hell if anything, it's probably that Gillibrand being on the ticket helped Obama than the other way around.

4. Even if Tedisco had won, the chances are that that seat would've been eliminated in the next round of redistricting (the Democrats should hold the trifecta in 2010) so the risk is actually much lower than one would think.

Keep in mind that I say this as someone who didn't like the idea of Gillibrand being the Senator (I was actually one of the few people around defending Caroline Kennedy, and boy that was an ordeal, let me tell you...)

Politics and Other Random Topics

24, Male, Democrat, NM-01, Chairman of the Atheist Caucus, and Majority Leader of the "Going to Hell" caucus!

[ Parent ]
Since you repeated my points
what is the apples to apples point?
[ Parent ]
My point is
Picking Gillibrand wasn't a horrible decision on the part of Paterson, true he could've made a better pick (again from a strategic viewpoint) but many of the other picks that Paterson could've made (forgetting Kennedy for the moment) were city politicians who could've been quite vulnerable to a Republican from Long Island or upstate (Remember, it wasn't that long ago that the Republicans had both the governor's mansion and one of the Senate seats.

Politics and Other Random Topics

24, Male, Democrat, NM-01, Chairman of the Atheist Caucus, and Majority Leader of the "Going to Hell" caucus!

[ Parent ]
You have to credit Murphy's campaign.
I agree that it was bad for Team Blue (though Paterson probably chose it out of his own initial--and somewhat misguided--assesment of political strategy for himself).

But you have to admit, Team Blue ran an impressive campaign here, to go from 26-50 to 50.01-49.99.

party: Democratic, ideology: moderate, district: CT-01

[ Parent ]
no, more than that
Murphy ran a frickign kick-ass campaign. He worked very hard, showed enormous natural political talent, and really made himself a great fit for the district and proved a very good fundraiser.

Call no man happy until he is dead-Aeschylus
[ Parent ]
I do not agree
Murphy ran very hard on supporting the stimulus, not just against Tedisco. He also did a very good job getting his name recognition up and becoming a good option for voters. The Democratic message clearly won in this election.
[ Parent ]
Oh ha ha ha ha.
"Jimmy T. Bags"

i c wat u did thar nao.

party: Democratic, ideology: moderate, district: CT-01

yeah i loved that
how long had you been preparing it?

so topical and timely - best since "Panic at Tedisco."

[ Parent ]
Came to me in a flash of inspiration this afternoon
When someone told a diarist at DK writing on the same subject that they'd never make the rec list today unless they put "teabagging" in the title. I have to give credit to another commenter for the twist on the end.
[ Parent ]
a friend saw this on twitter regarding the tea parties
A confused Queen Elizabeth II relented and has agreed to repeal the Stamp Act
[ Parent ]
hahahah
I'm really getting a kick out that!

Call no man happy until he is dead-Aeschylus
[ Parent ]
It would be absolutely hilarious
if she actually did that.

party: Democratic, ideology: moderate, district: CT-01
[ Parent ]
I still think that Panic at Tedisco is better.


party: Democratic, ideology: moderate, district: CT-01
[ Parent ]
Clever
I thought it was just a Goodfellas reference at first, but your interpretation is way more hilarious.

Male, 23, DC-At Large
[ Parent ]
20th District Race
What hasn't gotten enough attention in this race is the fact that Tedisco's antics were supported and facilitated by Republican officials at the various Board of Elections offices in the District.  When an absentee ballot is about to be opened and counted, either campaign can challenge it, and then the Democratic and Republican election commissioners vote to either sustain or overrule the challenge.  The Tedisco people were challenging something like 60% of the absentees, hoping that they could take those ballots to court and find a friendly judge to toss the challenged ballots out of the pool of absentees.  The only way this scam could work is if the GOP officials at BOE sustained all of his bullshit objections to perfectly legitimate votes.  The reprehensible conduct of Republican election commissioners needs to be exposed for what it is.
The Murphy caucus
i.e. the caucus of Dems named Murphy, in the House, will now will have four members, despite Lois Murphy's losses in PA-06 in 04 and 06.  The Murphy caucus will now be larger than the delegations from 17 states (and tied with another 3 states, MS, KS, and AR).  Prospects for Murphys in the Senate are so far a little remote, but I would bet Chris Murphy is looking hard at CT-Sen-2012(Lieberman).  

Anyone know of other Murphys considering running for federal office?  It seems to be a winning brand.

oops
I momentarily forgot that one Murphy isn't a Dem (Tim Murphy from PA-18).
[ Parent ]
and Patrick Murphy PA


Call no man happy until he is dead-Aeschylus
[ Parent ]
You beat me to the punch
I was going to write a diary on this very topic.

Clearly, Murphy is the new Davis.

When I first began paying attention to congressional politics in the late 1990's, there were three members of the House named Davis (Tom, R-VA, Jim, D-FL, and Danny, D-IL), and not a single Murphy (which, being Irish myself, I found quite curious). The Davis count jumped to five in the 107th Congress with the election of Susan, D-CA, and Jo Ann, R-VA.  Lo, the next election cycle brought in two more Davises - Artur, D-AL, and Lincoln, D-TN - as well as our first Murphy (Tim, R-PA).  2004 saw a cresting of the wave, with Geoff, R-KY, becoming the eighth Davis to serve in Congress.

A shift began, however, in 2006.  While the Davis count remained the same (with the retirement of Jim and the election of David, R-TN), the Murphy count tripled with the election of Patrick, D-PA, and Chris, D-CT.  (Interestingly, both had near-misses with, respectively, Jack, Crazy-NY, and Lois, D-PA). Sadly, in the middle of the 110th Congress, the Davises lost a member with the death of Jo Ann, but seemed poised to regain their position only a few short months later with the near-sure special election of Greg, R-MS. Alas, this was not meant to be, and the Davis contingent was further sheared in the 2008 elections with the retirement of Tom and the surprising primary defeat of David.

Thus, at the opening of the 111th Congress, there served three Murphys and five Davises.  And we all know what happened from here - Artur announced he was leaving to run for governor, and despite his long odds, Scott, D-NY, became (probably) the fourth Murphy in Congress through his harrowing (probable) special election.

So... if each of the four Murphys is re-elected, the Murphys will have reached parity with the once mighty Davises.

Male, 23, DC-At Large

[ Parent ]
Don't forget the OH-Steve caucus!

[ Parent ]
Exactly!
I was wondering when someone would mention that.
[ Parent ]
And also
It was mentioned here a couple of weeks ago that State Sen. Matt Murphy is considered a leading Republican contender for the seat in IL-10 should Mark Kirk vacate it. Naturally, his election would drive me insane as a), he's waaaaay too conservative, and b) Scott Murphy's actual first name is Matthew, and I'm not interested in seeing more Michael D. Rogers/Michael J. Rogers-style confusion.

Male, 23, DC-At Large
[ Parent ]
Well, don't worry, they're both "bad" guys.
You should be having more trouble between Tim P. Johnson and Tim V. Johnson.

party: Democratic, ideology: moderate, district: CT-01
[ Parent ]
Is it too early
for a Michael Steele death watch thread?
The delay in finding the winner
Probably saved him.
[ Parent ]
NY-20: Jimmy T. Bags 163 Votes but Still on Bottom | 96 comments

Copyright 2003-2010 Swing State Project LLC

Primary Sponsor

You're not running for second place. Is your website? See why Campaign Engine is ranked #1 in software and support among Progressive-only Internet firms. http://www.mediamezcla.com/

Menu

Make a New Account

Username:

Password:



Forget your username or password?

About the Site

Publisher: DavidNYC

Senior Editor: James L.

Senior Editor: Crisitunity

Contributing Editor: Jeffmd

Search the SSP archives:

Sign up to receive a daily e-mail whenever the SSP is updated:

SSP Resources

Presidential Vote by CD

SSP Document Collection

Race Tracker Wiki

Dave's Redistricting App

Blogroll

Daily Kos Elections
DemConWatch
Five Thirty Eight
Governing
Hotline On Call
Political Wire
Pollster.com
Prop*50
Public Policy Polling
The Thicket
Powered by: SoapBlox