After Representative Chris Lee took off his shirt, sent his picture to a woman on Craig’s List (which ended up on GAWKER), resigned from the House of Representatives, and then had to explain all this to his wife, a Special Election was called for the most Republican district in New York State. My District, District 26, is the most conservative district in New York. It has voted Republican for the past 58 years. So replacing Chris Lee should have been a slam-dunk for the Republican candidate, millionaire Jane Corwin. The 26th District has 30,000 more registered Republicans than Democrats. Erie Country Clerk, Kathy Hochul, the Democratic candidate had little chance in such an overwhelmingly Republican district…except Corwin announced she supported the Paul Ryan Plan to kill Medicare and replace it with a voucher system.
Kathy Hochul slammed Corwin for the last month for not supporting Medicare. Corwin, who held her ground until this past weekend when polls showed she was trailing her Democratic rival, suddenly flipped and ran TV ads embracing Medicare. But, it was too late. Despite the $10 million dollars of advertising money spent in this race, the result turned on Medicare. The national Republican Party might regret that vote in the House where Republicans were pressured to support the Ryan Kill Medicare Plan.
Tonawanda leads the way!
Actually, Western NY leads the way, Jeff. It was a stunning upset!
As one of the Democratic strategists put it this morning, “This election was won on three things: Medicare, Medicare, Medicare.”
This results of this election, plus reading New York Magazine’s profile of Fox’s Roger Ailes and his failure to develop a viable 2012 GOP candidate (wonder why?), has made my morning.
BTW, if any trolls show up here, don’t feed them!
You couldn’t ask for a clearer up-or-down vote on Medicare, Deb. “Stunning upset” doesn’t even begin to describe the electoral result. Republican Corwin’s campaign was well-financed, Carol Rove pumped $650,000 in negative TV commercials, and plenty of random conservative groups added their money and ads, too. Yet, the result was a clear defeat in this Republican bastion.
Love the attempt by Republicans to tie aid to tornado-torn areas to further budget cuts. They are the tin woodsmen of our time.
I’m sure the tornado survivors and their families will remember the Republicans’ parsimony, Patti.
I also liked Andy Borowitz’s take, Deb.
I don’t think the Republicans grasp that they’re on the Wrong Side of the major issues, Jeff. It’s not just that their candidates suck.
Eric Cantor is a dumb@ss, Patti. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot (or should that be head?).
Eric Cantor’s remarks about the tornado aid was heartless and cruel, Jeff. It merely confirms what we all suspected.
This is great news. I just hope the GOP keeps right on being the GOP so we can win in both the house and senate. And of course the White House.
The Medicare issue decided this race, Ed. If the Republicans continue to support the Ryan KILL MEDICARE Plan, they’re going down next November.
Now if we could only get a Democratic president and legislative majority that doesn’t echo 1970s Republicans. As we haven’t since, well, the ’70s.
The next general Election is going to be very interesting, Todd. The voters are grumpy and skittish. The Democrats better lower the unemployment rate or they’ll be looking for work.
Or, I should write, the ’60s. And LBJ just couldn’t find a spine about Vietnam…nor figure out how to refine his admin’s better activities.
LBJ learned a bitter lesson about the cost of War, Todd. I think Obama is learning the same lesson in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Pity he couldn’t be bothered to live up to his one worthwhile pledge.
Pledges by politicians are always contingent on whatever the political expediency happens to be, Todd.
This is one of the few blogs on which I seem to be able to leave a comment, since Blogger, may it roast in Hell, has seen fit to error-message me to death. Sort of like the GOP and it’s blind stumbling towards disenfranchising the country. Glad to read of this, it was somehow missed on the national newcasts…
If you watch MSNBC tonight, Rick, Lawrence O’Donnell and Rachel Maddow will spend considerable time analyzing the meaning of the Democrats winning in the 26th District. Like you, I’m having problems leaving comments on any BLOGGER site. BLOGGER demands that I sign up for a BLOGGER account before my comment is approved. So I just leave. I hope WORDPRESS can avoid these problems.
And yet, George, people still attempt to apologize for them.
Blogger has a charm all its own, Rick. I know Kate Laity is going to join you two in WordPressing.
The darn thing is, I have a blogger account, that I got specifically so I could easily post comments. It seems to be working again as of an hour ago, but once burned, twice careful (as Ben Franklin or whomever said).
I agree with you, Rick. It is infuriating not to be able to comment on BLOGGER sites. Hopefully, GOOGLE will fix this problem soon.
Actually, that glitch should be fixed…most of the Blogger outage (the MOST RECENT Blogger outage) was in place yesterday afternoon. I wasn’t ever affected, for example.
I don’t know why BLOGGER has singled out Rick and me, Todd, but I tried to comment on your blog yesterday and BLOGGER wouldn’t let me. The same with Patti Abbott’s blog, Bill Crider’s blog, etc. I’ll try again tomorrow.
Republicans stand a good chance of losing Ohio in ’12 too, since Republican Governor Kasih has managed to alienate just about everyone but the very rich…
I think it’s a classic case of “overreach,” Dan. The Republicans somehow think they have a mandate to destroy unions and impose their socially conservative agenda.
As soon as I posted, Blogger tried that nonsense on me with a Blogspot blog, but I clicked past it. And it only tried once. Lucky, I guess.
Sorry to read I didn’t get to see your comment.
I’ll keep trying to comment on BLOGGER sites, Todd. Rick and I have been frustrated all week.