I think Rush downplayed the significance of this result.
Chris Lee (R) won just last Nov. with 73% of the vote, getting about 150,000 votes back then, whereas Corwin ended up with around 40,000 votes.
Sure, Hochul didn’t crack 50% but she did a lot better than the Democrat who ran in Nov., who got a mere 29% of the vote.
Even if Corwin would have gotten all the Tea Party plant’s votes (doubtful), she might barely have won.
Where did all the Republican voters go? Surely they knew this was a very important election.
Something went very wrong.
This election may have not been as much a repudiation of the Ryan Medicare proposals as it was a Republican backlash against Chris Lee’s abhorrent behavior and resignation in shame.
It just doesn’t make sense that overwhelmingly, voters sent conservatives to D.C. last November to restore fiscal sanity and 6 months later, the voters have done a 180.
This is no upset, this is New York and they are libs Dems or whatever. They do not understand the Ryan bill or Obama care.
When and if we win in 2012 it will be without New York.
The portion that flipped to the Democrat might have thought the only cuts being made were to (the Holy Grail of) waste and fraud, not entitlement programs. I think the GOP would be well-advised to target Medicaid instead, since that is pretty close to Medicare from an expenditure standpoint, but would mainly impact Democratic voters. Going after SS and Medicare is a real problem, because people who have paid the taxes expect to get their money's worth in benefits after they retire.