As far as the 70,000 more registered Republicans. I think that is way over credited. Many of those "Republicans" have voted Dem in the recent past (Gillibrand, Obama).
What I've noticed in this area is that there is much more blind loyalty to the Dem party. There are a lot with Irish ancestry whose families have never voted anything but Dem. The "Murphy" name was an asset there too. Most Republicans are moderate here but will vote Dem if they like the candidate. It rarely goes the other way.
Bottom line for me. I'm not dancing for joy but I do think it was a small anti-Obama win here. My guess is that many more people who voted for Obama/Gillibrand in November switched to Tedisco than switched from McCain/Treadwell to Murphy (I doubt hardly anyone did that).
I hope to look back on this race and see it was the spark for a turnaround in 2010.
You are of course correct in viewing the November election in this congressional district, not to mention that Tedisco (R) was 4% down going into this special election.
He also had unpaid volunteers working on his behalf against the money that Obama put in with his ACORN type paid volunteers.
In spite of that, it looks like the Obamunists may still lose. It’s most certainly a good sign if they do.
And rascal(RAT) can go down in flames with them. :)