The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

NY-26 ELECTION NIGHT HQ
UPDATE: Democrat Hochul Wins

Posted on | May 24, 2011 | 42 Comments

12:30 a.m. ET: The predicted spin from the New York Times:

Democrats scored an upset in one of New York’s most conservative Congressional districts on Tuesday, dealing a blow to the national Republican Party in a race that largely turned on the party’s plan to overhaul Medicare.

11:45 p.m. ET: Erick Erickson at Red State:

The truth of the matter is that the Republican Party of New York sucks and has sucked for a while. It is especially terrible at special elections where the out of touch party leaders pick state legislators who everyone hates and runs them.
Jane Corwin is a sitting member of the NY State Legislature, just like Jim Tedisco, just like Dede Scozzafava, and she was handpicked by the party elders. Notice a trend?

Good points. This election was anomalous, as I said earlier today. With 97% of precincts reporting, Jack Davis’s vote (9,495) is more than double Democrat Kathy Hochul’s 4,694 margin over Corwin. However, the impact of Davis’s phony “Tea Party” candidacy — like the blunders of the New York GOP — will be all but ignored as the MSM spins NY-26 as a huge Democrat triumph of national significance.

10:45 p.m. ET: Now that it’s over — Jane Corwin has conceded, as Jazz Shaw reports — let me say a few words to the Republican Party of New York.

WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?

In the middle of a recession, why would you nominate an heiress for Congress? Not to play class-warfare here, but do you really think that it helps the GOP win over hard-pressed blue-collar voters when you run a candidate who inherited part of a $4o0 million fortune? You think folks can relate to that?

And why, Republican Party of New York, if you were going to insist on nominating Jane Corwin for this special election, couldn’t you have at least done something to keep David Bellavia on the GOP team? Bellavia’s endorsement of Jack Davis hurt you guys pretty bad, but your campaign was so generally mismanaged that maybe you didn’t notice.

So now we have to listen to Democrats gloat about what a huge setback this is to the conservative movement when, as we all know, it’s just further proof of the incompetence of the Republican Party of New York — as if we needed further proof!

UPDATE 10:14 p.m. ET: It’s over. With 75% of precincts reporting, and Democrat Kathy Hochul leading by nearly 5,000 votes — 48%-42% — she has been declared the winner over Republican Jane Corwin. Third-party spoiler Jack Davis’s vote total will be greater than Hochul’s margin of victory.

With 469 (75%) of 627 precincts reporting:

Kathy Hochul (Democrat) . . . . . . 39,492 (48%)
Jane Corwin (Republican) . . . . . . 34,553 (42%)
Jack Davis (Crazy) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6,722 (8%)

UPDATE 9:50 p.m. ET: Still no precincts reporting from Genesee or Orleans counties. Hochul’s lead of about 2,700 votes is coming entirely from Erie County.

UPDATE 9:45 p.m. ET: With 345 (55%) of 627 precincts reporting:

Kathy Hochul (Democrat) . . . . . . 29,063 (48%)
Jane Corwin (Republican) . . . . . . 26,277 (43%)
Jack Davis (Crazy) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5,090 (8%)

UPDATE 9:37 p.m. ET: With 210 (33%) of 627 precincts reporting:

Kathy Hochul (Democrat) . . . . . . 18,022 (48%)
Jane Corwin (Republican) . . . . . . 16,033 (42%)
Jack Davis (Crazy) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,369 (9%)

UPDATE 9:33 p.m. ET: Looking at the county-by-county results, I notice that so far we haven’t gotten any results from Genesee (53 precincts), Orleans (32 precincts) or Wyoming (40 precincts) counties.

UPDATE 9:28 p.m. ET: With 87 (14%) of 627 precincts reporting:

Kathy Hochul (Democrat) . . . . . . 7,393 (46%)
Jane Corwin (Republican) . . . . . . 7,004 (43%)
Jack Davis (Crazy) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,644 (10%)

Linked by The Lonely Conservative — thanks!

UPDATE 9:23 p.m. ET: With 20 (3%) of 627 precincts reporting:

Kathy Hochul (Democrat) . . . . . . 3,098 (46%)
Jane Corwin (Republican) . . . . . . 2,811 (42%)
Jack Davis (Crazy) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 790 (12%)

UPDATE 9:05 p.m. ET: The Buffalo News will be the go-to source for live election results, and they’ve also got the vote breakdown county-by-county.

PREVIOUSLY: Polls close at 9 p.m. ET in the special election to fill the seat vacated by Chris Lee in New York’s 26th District. We will have complete results and analysis.

Dave Weigel, who traveled to the district to cover the closing week of the campaign, is liveblogging at Slate. Jessica Taylor is liveblogging at National Journal.

Jazz Shaw has an open thread at Hot Air, and notes that Republican Jane Corwin has already gone to court to prevent an early certification of tonight’s results.

PREVIOUSLY:

Category: Congress, Election, New York, Republicans

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