The AP has called NY-26 for Kathy Hochul, who’s holding a 6 point lead over Jane Corwin. Current Tea Partier and former Democrat Jack Davis has about 8 percent. It’s pretty hard to cast Davis as a spoiler with those kind of numbers in a R+7 R+6 district. This election was brought to you by Kathy Hochul’s solid campaign, Jane Corwin’s clown car shitstorm fail parade, and Paul Ryan’s party-destroying Medicare vouchers.
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[…] ADDED: mistermix at BJ notes that the spoilerish Tea Partier only came up with 8 percent of the vote in an R+7 district. The mythical Perot in 1992 this ain’t. […]
Jeffro
I’m sure FOX News is having one of those screaming red alert ‘Breaking News’ thingys to report this right now, right? Right?
LOLOL
Peter
I have the biggest grin on my face right now.
dmsilev
However, I have faith that the GOP will find a way.
hildebrand
Thus ends the campaign to encourage Paul Ryan to get into the Presidential race.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Jeffro:
Prolly got Paul Ryan hisself on the screen talking about abolishing medicare, with a (D) under his name.
GregB
Hochulmania!
Woodrow/asim Jarvis Hill
Good for her!
And it’s truly amazing how obsessive stupidity can backfire. Here’s to a lot more self-foot-shooting from those invested in making life harder on the least of us…
Hunter Gathers
This proves nothing. Corwin was insufficiently conservative, and let’s face here folks, ACORN probably stole this for the Demonrat. My sister’s boyfriend’s cousin’s former roommate says that there are a lot of missing votes, and that they saw Black Panthers hanging around the voting booths. Voter fraud! Voter fraud!
mistermix
Tomorrow’s diagnosis for Republicans: Ryanophobia.
nhdemocrat
I don’t think the GOP is going to flee from Medicare more-remember, Conservatism cannot fail, it can only be failed. Ergo, Corwin ran a terrible campaign and should have stood by the plan. She lost because she flip-flopped. This will be GOP CW by tomorrow @ noon.
dmsilev
@Hunter Gathers: You forgot to blame the unions, George Soros, and a trio of suspicious-looking yetis.
martha
@Just Some Fuckhead: And Joe Kernen will have to think twice about inviting him back on CNBC for his weekly “oh Paul you’re so dreamy!” session.
The Dangerman
Ryan will probably revise his proposal to Grandfather in everyone over voting age.
Jenny
Why I hate the Beltway Media, reason #568,862: right on cue, an analyst for the “Cook Political Report” is already spinning that losing a seat that has been GOP terriotry since 1857 is seat is no big deal.
Beltway media corruption knows no bounds.
boss bitch
She bangs, she bangs. Woooo!!!!
beltane
@hildebrand: No, no, no. This is not the end of the campaign to encourage Paul Ryan to get into the Presidential race, it is just the end of the beginning of the campaign to encourage Sir Douchebag to enter the race. He is still not nearly hated enough by the American people to fade back into obscurity quite so soon.
Americans have tasted the tea, found it tastes like raw sewage, and are now spitting it right back in the Republicans’ faces.
maryQ
but, but, but, but…. Scott Brown! and, and, and ….Hochul starts with “H”-what other famous last name started with “H”? And, and, and….Death Panels!
SteveinSC
Yep, thanks to serious, courageous Paul Ryan the repukes have lost a safe seat (Jack Kemp’s I understand.) Today Eric Cantor may have offered up Missouri by fucking around with tornado relief. And later this week, Harry Reid is going to offer the Repukes an opportunity for public seppuku. I’ve got popcorn and Pepsi for the show.
Spaghetti Lee
@mistermix:
But Ryan is Very Serious. He won’t be abandoned. I’m with nhdemocrat up there. They’ll blame insufficient solidarity, just like always.
ZB IV
I do take great pleasure in the Fact that Hochul got about 48%. That’s unheard of in these parts ( a dem with that high of a percentage). So much for the Ryan plan to force me to work an extra 10 years…..
boss bitch
Obama already sent out a statement
Corner Stone
Man, where is -Reality Check- , I mean DougJ when you need him?
boss bitch
Obama already sent out a statement.
billgerat
Erick, son of Erick sez:
Republicans suck in New York. Period. End of Story.
The GOP lost the special election in NY-26 and the media and Democrats are heralding it as proof that the GOP is getting punished for wanting to reform medicare.
Back when the GOP lost the 2009 special election in New York featuring Dede Scozzafava, et al, the Democrats heralded the GOP defeat as proof that Republican opposition to Obamacare and being the “Party of No” was a clear sign that the Democrats were right on the agenda and the GOP’s obstruction of Barack Obama would be punished by the voters.
That was before the GOP went on to win the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial races and pick up Ted Kennedy’s (!!!!) seat in Massachusetts.
To say that this special election defeat of the GOP is a repudiation of the GOP’s efforts on Medicare is laughable on its face.
boss bitch
FOX is doing tornado coverage
Peter
@SteveinSC: Chris Lee’s, actually.
gil mann
I won’t believe it until she’s seated. And proves disappointing enough to merit a primary challenger from the left.
danimal
It will take more spin than my Kenmore’s capability to turn this into good news for the GOP.
Nevertheless, this is good news for John McCain…hehehehehehe
Nothing to see here, conservatives, just keep on doing what you’ve been doing. It’ll work next time, I’m sure of it.
jwb
@hildebrand: What, I’m all for Ryan getting into the GOP presidential race.
Mike in NC
@mistermix:
Hopefully not. They will probably do the usual and double down on the craziness the base demands. Ryan needs to do a freakin’ victory lap!
Spaghetti Lee
@billgerat:
Keep whistling, Greasy Dumb Ass.
CaseyL
I didn’t get home til a little while ago (UPS delivered my new keyboard to the old office address, and the vendor won’t allow redelivery, so I had to go to the UPS facility and pick it up) – and this was *F*A*B*U*L*O*U*S* news to come home to. It’s a rare political event I can be unequivocably happy about, and I’m enjoying the occasion.
Yay, Hochul!
SteveinSC
@Peter: Lately, less lately, Jack Kemp’s or so the TV man said.
maryQ
Fox also features “Kirstie drops 38 inches” and “Shriver Leaked Love Child” because, apparently, nothing newsworthy is happening.
Judas Escargot
Wow.
Whenever I give up on the People (eg Iowa Jan2008), they go and prove me wrong and make me feel like a total asshole.
Go People. I can deal with being an asshole.
Carl Nyberg
If Obama wins the Electoral College with more than 68% of the vote, the odds of the GOP winning in 2016 becomes very low barring some major event changing people’s opinion of the Dem Party (e.g. Great Depression, Vietnam War or Watergate).
If the Dems get their shit together before 2020 and pass legislation that creates a pathway to citizenship, that’s another big slug of Dem voters that will be eligible.
Plus a bunch of cranky old “White” people will die off by 2020.
Tonight’s election shows the possibility of the Dems not just winning in 2012, but again in 2016 and 2020.
The Republicans only won in 2000 by disenfranchising Blacks in Florida. And the party probably won in 2004 by disenfranchising large numbers in Ohio and artificially stimulating the economy with the Iraq War.
Republicans are looking at a very grim future (potentially) after tonight.
jwb
@boss bitch: Well, to be fair, the tornadoes seem to have a predilection for the Godbotherers.
Citizen_X
@billgerat: Double down, Erick, double down!
Jenny
This “R+7 district” stuff is bullshit.
6 months ago, Chris Lee won this district with 74% of the vote. By comparison, Nancy Pelosi won San Francisco with 80% and Jerry Nadler won Manhattan with 76% of the vote.
The GOP just lost a deep red district.
Warren Terra
Now, now, they’re Paul Ryan’s Medicare-destroying Medicare vouchers. Products are named for their features, not their bugs.
jnfr
@hildebrand:
Oh I wish Paul Ryan would run. I don’t even pray, but I would pray for Paul Ryan to run. It would make me so happy to watch Obama kick his skanky little ass. Please run, Paul Ryan! You’re our only hope!
Mike in NC
@maryQ:
How in hell does somebody drop 38 inches? On the other hand, I can see Chris Christie adding 38 inches without breaking a sweat.
Hunter Gathers
@dmsilev: Those damn dirty yetis! They’re probably in cahoots with known socia!ists Sasquatch and the Loch Ness Monster.
I knew Nessie was behind this all along. Why else would Obama be in Great Britain? He recruited Leprechauns when he was in Ireland (while drinking 40’s like the common gangster thug that he is)in order to steal all of the world’s gold so we can never go back to the Gold Standard. Tomorrow he’s going to cast a Muslim spell while visiting Stonehenge in order to open a dimensional vortex that will free Cthulhu, bringing about 1000 years of Sharia Law upon the world. Sure, laugh at me now, but when the Zombie Muslims come to steal your gold fillings next week, you’ll be running for the hills while I’m safe and secure in my Glenn Beck™ Fortress Of Solitude, which was blessed by John Hagee to keep evil away.
Jenny
@Carl Nyberg:
let’s not overlook that Al Gore won the popular vote by nearly 600,000 votes, with Nader garnering another 2.9 million votes.
billgerat
@Spaghetti Lee: What, you can’t handle that Erickson wants to spin the explanation away from the fact that Ryancare lost the election for them?
joeyess
I give the firebaggers exactly 72 hours after Hocul’s first vote in congress is cast to scream “Blue-Dog!” and “primary!”.
Fred
It’s a beautiful thing. American politics are an ugly ugly thing…but one way or another sooner or later it sometimes works.
ruemara
I may be trapped in a broadcast booth, watching a meeting, but inside, I’m dancing the macarena. Or it’s a spasm of joy, or I have to pee and there’s no one to take over the booth.
Spaghetti Lee
@billgerat:
No, I understand that completely. And I’m mocking him for it.
Spaghetti Lee
@Hunter Gathers:
Sasquatch ISREAL!
Reality Check
It’s almost cute how Democrat hacks and BO worshippers are getting so excited over a minor local race that was decided by a spoiler (Hochul will not get a majority, merely a plurality). Have fun in O-Land, losers. The real election is in Nov. 2012, and this is post-Citizens United and post-voter fraud.
Carl Nyberg
@billgerat: Well, I guess that’s why we hold elections.
We get to see how the voters really feel.
James E. Powell
@Spaghetti Lee:
Perhaps my favorite moment in right-wing stupidity.
scav
Well, the F-5 spin has just checked in.
jwb
@Reality Check: Troll needs a tune-up.
SteveinSC
Another in the AP’s not-so-subtle water-carrying for the repukes. Fucking Hochul won by fucking 6 points, but that is just edging past Corwin? A Democrat couldn’t impress the AP if they showed them a telephone pole up a gnat’s ass. AP, the fucking print version of Fox Noise.
Omnes Omnibus
@dmsilev: Those aren’t yetis; they were the RNC poll watchers. Easy mistake to make. For future reference, yetis are the more upright, less shambling ones.
jnfr
@Reality Check:
Pie! I get it.
Spaghetti Lee
@joeyess:
I’d tell you to wage some peace after such a big win, but there’s already a guy in TPM’s comments warning about Hochul’s blue dog-ness. I don’t get it. He’d prefer a Republican, maybe?
General Stuck
@billgerat:
I absolutely agree, just one election, coulda been anything, bad candidate, stars out of whack, but certainly not due to Paul Ryan’s and the GOP selfless courage to take on privatizing medicare, You republicans should keep up the fight to end medicare. Is there anything we can due to help get out the message?
Mike in NC
@Reality Check:
Reality
checksucks, doesn’t it Kochsucker?beltane
@Spaghetti Lee: How can Hochul already be a corporatist sell-out when she hasn’t even been sworn in? You’d think they’d wait for the bus to leave the garage before complaining about being thrown under the bus.
sistermoon
Paul Ryan – the Bobby Jindhal of 2012…
The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge
@Carl Nyberg:
With this weird geographical red/blue divide we’re apparently stuck with indefinitely, I see a very real possibility that Obama could win in 2012 by the biggest landslide in history and still lose the Electoral vote.
So if the stolen election of 2000 wasn’t enough to get 100 million people out in the street every day until it was overturned, would that do it? Or would the sheep just bend over again?
I’m half hoping for that, because it’s the only way I can see to get rid of the Electoral College albatross. Of course, we’d still be stuck with the Senate, where senators representing 10% of the population can block anything.
mr. whipple
Yes, they only lost this seat because the candidate was insuffiently zealous about destroying Medicare. They must triple down, it’s a sure winner!
Fred
@Carl Nyberg: Hold your horses. I’ll take an Obama win, supermajority in the Senate, and solid majority in the house in 2012 (only 2 out of those 3 are likely). 2016 is too far away altough Jeb Bush with his fluent spanish scares the hell out of me. And he’s not even that much of an idiot compared to his brother.
Spaghetti Lee
@The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge:
Obama could win in 2012 by the biggest landslide in history and still lose the Electoral vote.
Um, how? He won 373 electoral votes last year. I think he’d have to lose Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida to erase that margin. I can see him losing one of those, but all 6?
I think the EC kind of works in the Dems’ favor sometimes. There’s lots of Republicans in California, New York, Illinois, et al, but the Dems get all the Electoral votes in those states. I think a more proportional system for presidential elections would end up working against us.
General Stuck
@mr. whipple:
It hurts me when you don’t link my comment to your quote, Mr Whipple. It hurts beyond description, sniff sniff, can I gets a little tissue please sir. And just a itty bitty squeeze?
Karen
I went to SUNY Brockport and got to know a lot of people from that area so I know how Red it is. Only a “blue dog” would have been able to win in this area. But the point is, the DEM WON!
Scott Brown is already distancing himself and one thing I’ve noticed about him is that he knows which way the wind is blowing and doesn’t try to alter reality. As he goes, so goes the country.
I haven’t felt this happy since Obama won the election…
I know that this doesn’t guarantee he’ll win in 2012. I know that this doesn’t guarantee that any Dem will win in the next election that happens.
But the way that GOP is eating their own gun just fills me with hope for the first time since the GOP slaughter of 2010 and to anyone who just wants to crap on that hope and stomp it into the ground, STFU.
mr. whipple
@Spaghetti Lee:
As in 2008, progressives can party this evening(with just a tinge of dread) in full expectation they will be disappointed by something Hochul will do by the end of the business day tomorrow. This will lead them to stay home in 2012 with hurt feefees.
Spaghetti Lee
@Fred:
I think it’s basically impossible for the Dems to get a supermaj. in the Senate. There’s only 10 Republicans in class one, and we’d need to take 7 of them. And they’re states like Mississippi, Texas, Utah, etc.
Jenny
Cross your fingers: Palin inches closer to presidential run
http://www.lohud.com/article/20110506/NEWS01/105060351/Obama-meets-victims-families-Ground-Zero
mr. whipple
@General Stuck:
Here’s a tissue, General. Sorry I hurt your feefees by denying your personhood.
mr. whipple
@General Stuck:
Here’s a tissue, General. Sorry I hurt your feefees by denying your personhood.
BethanyAnne
From Twitter: Dem. slogan for 2012 – a noun, a verb, and Medicare.
General Stuck
@mr. whipple:
@mr. whipple:
Thank you, and thank you.
Janeane The Acerbic Goblin
@sistermoon:
And like Bobby Jindal, Paul Ryan was a MSM darling. They adored him. He was “visionary” and “bold” and “could leap tall buildings in a single bound”. He was going to save us from ourselves. He was going to be our fearless leader.
They both crashed and crashed badly.
MSM WRONG AGAIN. They should just give up propping up GOP “rising stars” and stick to things they know about like Lindsay Lohan and what’s wrong with Charlie Sheen.
BethanyAnne
@BethanyAnne: That’s from Oliver Willis, @owillis
AAA Bonds
Ian Murphy
Carl Nyberg
Does this election revive Newt Gingrich’s candidacy?
Newt Gingrich: adult supervision for an
irresponsibleoverly ambitious Republican Party?AAA Bonds
Ian Murphy
or are we forgetting http://www.janecorwin.org
J. Miller
Reality Check, does your Mommy know that you’re using her computer to say nasty things on the Internet? And aren’t you up past your bedtime?
darkmatter
@Reality Check: You are a funny guy. Also, brain-damage level stupid.
Fred
@Jenny: If you think for one second Failin had any intention of running…ever you are on crack!
AAA Bonds
Top story on http://www.janecorwin.org today:
http://www.janecorwin.org/dont-forget-to-vote-tomorrow/
joeyess
@Spaghetti Lee: that’s what I’m sayin’.
They just can’t help themselves.
maryQ
@joeyess: Joeyess, I shouldn’t laugh, and I won’t be laughing in 72 hours when you are proven correct, but tonight, in my joyful happy state, I found that amusing.
Corner Stone
@AAA Bonds: “Talking to old people”
Morbo
Mmmm, that’s good milkshake.
kdaug
@Fred: The arc of justice is long
Q.Q. Moar
Here’s a fun nutpic from the schadenfreude thread at Freak Repugnant:
Right on. This is a man who understands his party’s platform.
joeyess
@maryQ: it is a good night, isn’t it?
Beta Magellan
@mr. whipple:
They may not end up so disappointed if NY-26 disappears with redistricting, which I’ve heard is pretty likely.
Reality Check
Ryan’s Path to Prosperity needs better marketing. Sounds like a job for Crossroads GPS and Karl Rove.
Beta Magellan
@Q.Q. Moar:
I like that strategy. It’s working pretty well for the Democrats in Wisconsin.
joeyess
@Q.Q. Moar: wow. and to think some people here were whining about having ethics in politics. ethics? with these cretins? not a chance. as Al Davis would say: “just win, baby.”.
shortstop
There used to be an insane (and he really was — still is, probably) poster, a lobbyist, over at Washington Monthly who believed he was the only Democrat who knew how to win an election and constantly chastised the rest of the posters for our supposed unbridled idiocy. He devoted dozens of posts a year or two ago to warning us that we’d better be darned skeered of Paul Ryan, a brilliant [sic], handsome [sic] young [sic] Congressman from Wisconsin who was the “new face of the Republican party.” We just had no idea what was going to hit us when Ryan got his well-deserved national prominence, we were told. No Democrat could survive against the Ryan juggernaut of awesomeness.
Did I mention this guy never, ever got a prediction right?
Congratulations to Hochul tonight. This is sweet.
maryQ
Obama’s 2012 campaign strategy: Hand Republican candidates shovels. Stand back quietly. Watch them dig.
shortstop
@maryQ: Whhhyyyyyyy won’t the president LEAD!?!?!?1
Triassic Sands
Who cares if someone calls Davis a spoiler? If it gets Teabagger crazies bickering with standard issue Republican lunatics, that’s great. Anything that creates division and dissension among the Wingers is good. The truth is you never what what would have happened if…because the if didn’t happen. In the end, what really matters is that somebody is going to Washington and somebody isn’t.
We’ve just got to hope that the Republicans are finally committed to publicly supporting their real ideological agenda. If they take Cantor’s advice and nominate Paul Ryan, or someone else who will tell the American people more or less what the Republicans really want to do with the social safety net, there may be a lot more NY-26-like elections in the next few years.
Sane Republicans (if there were any) would look at this and realize that Paul Ryan’s Plan to Kill Medicare (the wet dream of every red-blooded Wingnut) is not a great blueprint for electoral hegemony. The GOP now has to figure out how to keep pretending they will defend Medicare (with no such worries concerning Medicaid), while maintaining the long-term goal of eliminating it. The more pressure they take off Medicare, the more they are likely to put on Medicaid. That’s why Democrats have to stop talking about the two programs in isolation. Both are about this country’s commitment to elderly people, since the largest share of Medicaid goes for long-term care facilities for…the elderly.
Rhoda
To be a fly on the wall of the Republican Caucus tomorrow…this was an amazing accomplishment. Especially considering the Republicans outspent the DEMS; but you put lipstick on a pig it’s still a pig.
The entire GOP House caucus, but four sane individuals who know not to jump off a bridge just because they’re friends flying off yelling Geronimo, voted to end Medicare as we know it. The Republicans can say they’re going to go on offensive and say DEMS cut Medicare in the ACA but that is bullshit because Vouchercare is a Republican plan and a litmus test for Republican presidential candidates of which I all of the current crop have expressed some support with Pawlenty having the most wiggle room.
2012 is going to be something.
gwangung
@maryQ: And give encouraging shoves in the back when warranted.
maryQ
@gwangung: Give them Power Bars and water when then get tired.
OzoneR
@billgerat:
which is why they won six House seats and almost snagged a seventh, ended the Democratic supermajority in the Assembly, and took back the Senate, last year.
shortstop
@OzoneR: And they’re looking good for next year’s elections, boy sirree! All except for the “looking good” part.
guachi
Given how toxic the Medicare vote is becoming, why didn’t Democrats in the Senate put this to a vote weeks ago? At least then they could have gotten Collins or Brown to vote for it.
Now, it won’t have any electoral effect as any Republicans that would have been hurt by a ‘yes’ vote will vote ‘no’.
El Cid
@shortstop:
Did he work for Bill Kristol?
OzoneR
@shortstop:
oh they’re gonna get killed in New York next year, they know it.
OzoneR
@guachi:
they’re voting on it on Thursday
Mnemosyne
@guachi:
Probably because Ben Nelson (D-Asshole) has been prancing around chirping about how AWESOME the Ryan plan is and how he’s totally going to vote for it. The Repugs would only need to flip a few Blue Dogs to pass the loathsome thing, so Reid may not have wanted to take that chance.
Frankensteinbeck (The ex-Uloborus)
@maryQ:
It’s been his strategy since they started coming unhinged in 2009. It’s working pretty well. Electoral patterning said they’d take both houses in 2010 until the Tea Party came along.
ABL
@maryQ: You understand what Marcy Wheeler can’t fathom.
To wit:
Empty Wheel, indeed.
Ridiculous.
Villago Delenda Est
@Carl Nyberg:
I don’t think so. Newt will have to flop back to “the Ryan plan is stupid” after flipping to “it was a ‘gotcha’ question”. Then there’s the entire “if someone runs tape of me saying the Ryan plan is stupid social engineering, they’re lying!” issue that is just about perfect for a 30 second spot.
Then there’s all the pure fantasy of the “Newt the Outsider” meme that his trained monkey campaign spokesman blurted out last week.
Bulworth
Nothing to see here, please move along.
NRCC head Sessions actually claiming Dems ran two candidates in this race, which is a strange argument to make. Why would any party want to run two candidates, and thus split it’s vote. Oh well.
Bulworth
Great. More diet coke all over my keyboard.
Nutella
The Ryan vote was important but it’s not the only thing that will affect congressonal elections. By all accounts, Hochul ran a good campaign and Corwin ran a terrible one.
When Brown won Massachusetts it was considered a bellwether also but an important aspect of that race was that Brown ran a pretty good campaign and the Democrat ran a really terrible one.
Ryan has handed the Democrats a very effective weapon but they’ve got to be out there swinging it every day in every election.
(edited to fix dumb wording)
Pongo
I’m sure Medicare was the major reason for her loss, but you can’t discount the basic ‘pissing the hell out of the electorate’ factor, either. I have a friend in Rochester who, although being apolitical, decided she would never vote for Corwin due to the irritating and endless string of ads she polluted the airwaves with and her campaign’s ‘harassment’ model of voter outreach–beautifully documented by the Buffalo Beast. Ryan may have provided the hammer, but Corwin’s personality was the final nail in her coffin.