Part 3: November 3rd, The Spin (NY-23)

NEW YORK-23 (Democratic pick up) –

Owens           49.2%
Hoffman        45.2%
Scozzafava    5.5%

This melodramatic cluster fuck has to be one for the books.  The White House played politics with this one from day one, delaying and delaying the confirmation of Congressman John McHugh as Army Secretary.  Then the 11 county chairman gathered around their tea leaves and selected a liberal State Senator

Republicans will say they had a weak candidate, which is true.  They will say, at least the party leadership (RNC, NRCC) that they had to support Dede.  She was the official Republican in the race.  This is also true.  What they won’t tell you is about all the money DC Repubs spent demonizing Hoffman for weeks.

Conservatives will say that had Dede dropped out earlier, they would have won.  That being said, conservative grassroots/tea party goers are fired up.  They will take this loss as a challenge.  They will set their aim at their next targets, likely to be in the Florida, California, & Illinois Senates.

Democrats are giddy as little school girls right now.  It’s the only thing they have to be happy about from last night.  The Dems will talk about the “purge” of moderates from the GOP.

Bottom line: I would like to see the raw numbers.  How many of the 6,976 votes did Scozzafava in early voting and absentee ballots?

NY-23 proves you can’t win without moderates and you can’t win by outside special interests.  It also proves that it is good to have primaries.  Were that the case here, the battle between Scozzafava and Hoffman would have been played out weeks ago.  But because of the election laws in the state of New York, for a special election, everyone runs on the same ballot.

Democrat’s victory will be short lived.  NY-23 is a solid Republican district (at least until redistricting in 2012).  This seat will likely return to the GOP fold in next year’s mid-term elections.