Free Republic

New conservative candidates are emerging in New York House races ... updates are included in this thread. Perhaps the most exciting new conservative on the scene is Retired Army colonel Chris Gibson (R) in NY-20. (Recall that freshman Rep. Murphy was elected last spring in a tight special election over GOPer Jim Tedisco.) An Albany Times Union blog reports: "Retired Army colonel Chris Gibson of Kinderhook won an endorsement from the Clifton Park Republican Committee Thursday night. The members talked to Gibson as well as the other men looking to challenge Democrat U.S. Rep. Scott Murphy in the 20th Congressional...

The budget’s passage means the board is spared from having to adopt a contingency budget of $165.5 million, which would have increased the tax levy by 15.8 percent. District officials said state law locked them into a formula that used the inflation rate plus costs from increased enrollment. “Nobody wants to do a contingency,” Ely said. That possibility had prompted Assemblyman Jim Tedisco, R-Glenville, to craft a bill mandating that a contingency budget always be below a budget previously rejected by voters. He also said that using increased enrollment figures when calculating the budget is “totally inappropriate. “Whether this passed...

A fundamental urge for change and a subpar get out the vote program doomed Assemblyman Jim Tedisco's (R) congressional campaign... ..... About six months after President Obama won the White House, a race in which Obama's economic policies played a significant role featured Tedisco, who has been in public office for more than two decades, and Murphy, a venture capitalist who had never sought public office. "This race tended to be more of businessman versus politician," said one GOP strategist close to Tedisco's campaign when asked to offer a postmortem. "Fresh face [versus] guy who's been around for a while."Though...

APRIL 27, 2009 Another GOP Defeat Albany lifers are lousy candidates. Republicans lost another Congressional race on Friday, as Democratic newcomer Scott Murphy was declared the victor by some 400 votes in the March 31 special House election in New York state. But you wouldn't know it from the response of House Minority Leader John Boehner, who declared that GOP candidate Jim Tedisco "forced the Democratic Party to invest heavily and defend a seat they should have had in the bag." I-yi-yi. New York's 20th Congressional district is precisely the kind the GOP will have to win if it wants...

Here's an interesting ad... Is it just me or is the DNC doing the job of the GOP's job for them? I think a lot of us are wondering how the GOP can expect to win much of anything back in 2010 if they couldn't recapture the 20th District of New York. I wanna like Michael Steele- I really do. I really, really do...

Republican Jim Tedisco conceded the special election to fill Senator Kirsten Gillibrand’s vacated House seat to Scott Murphy yesterday, thereby giving Democrats their second Congressional victory post-November, but most importantly, a reason to cast Republicans – namely, Republican National Chairman Michael Steele – in a less than competent light. After rebounding from a series of gaffes and provocative interviews, Steele saw NY-20 as a means to change the narrative. He elected to up the ante and raise the profile of the race by investing large sums of money in the race, transferring $280,000 to the New York Republican State Committee,...

Almost a month after a special election in a heavily Republican congressional district, the Democratic candidate claimed victory Friday when his GOP opponent conceded in a race that focused attention on President Barack Obama's stimulus plan. After the March 31 election in New York's 20th District, Democrat Scott Murphy and Republican Jim Tedisco were separated by a handful of votes with thousands of absentee ballots to be counted. For nearly four weeks, the lead flipped back and forth but Murphy's advantage started to grow this week and was more than 400 votes on Thursday. Murphy said he expects to be...

Venture capitalist Scott Murphy (D) will be sworn into Congress next week to fill Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's (D-N.Y.) vacant House seat. Murphy's Republican opponent conceded late Friday. Assemblyman Jim Tedisco (R) called and congratulated Murphy for a squeaker of a win that took more than three weeks from the March 31 special election to confirm. "This was a closely contested election that perhaps lasted a little longer than anyone may have expected or wanted," Tedisco said in a statement late Friday. "But it was important for our electoral process and for the hardworking people of upstate New York that it...

A finish line could be in sight in the race for the 20th Congressional District. With the numbers not looking good for Republican Jim Tedisco, sources tell Capital News 9 that Tedisco could concede to Democrat Scott Murphy as soon as Friday afternoon....

Reports: Tedisco concession coming soon; Murphy leads by 401 Two news organizations, RollCall and Capital News 9, are reporting that Republican Jim Tedisco has "abandoned hope" of winning the special election and "could conceded to Democrat Scott Murphy as soon as Friday afternoon." According to the latest official tally, Scott Murphy leads by 401 votes. He's held an advantage for nearly two weeks, which has grown steadily during the recanvassing.

Assemblyman Jim Tedisco (R,C-Saratoga) today issued the following statement after conceding the race for New Yorks 20th Congressional district: "Mary and I would like to thank the citizens of the 20th Congressional district for their kindness, courtesy and patience shown during this extended campaign. This was a closely contested election that perhaps lasted a little longer than anyone may have expected or wanted. But it was important for our electoral process and for the hard-working people of Upstate New York that it be resolved fairly and decisively. "Earlier today, I called and congratulated Scott Murphy on a hard-fought contest and...

Democrat Scott Murphy expanded his lead by another 92 votes late Wednesday in the race to fill a Capital Region congressional seat. Murphy, of Glens Falls, is now ahead of Republican James Tedisco, of Glenville, by 365 votes. The two are vying for a U.S. House of Representatives district that covers part or all of six area counties. The seat has been vacant since late January, when Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) was appointed to the U.S. Senate. As of Friday, Murphy has 79,951 votes; Tedisco has 79,586. The state Board of Elections is compiling the updated totals twice a day; all...

Representatives for Republican Assemblyman James Tedisco and Democrat Scott Murphy are at the State Board of Elections in Albany on Thursday, reviewing contested absentee ballots in the race for the 20th Congressional District. Members from each county board of election in the district have come to the Steuben Street offices, along with attorneys for Tedisco and Murphy. There are about 1,150 absentee ballots still left uncounted in all, but Thursday's count only involved about 200 or so. Political figures from both the left and right speculate that Tedisco does not have a chance to overcome what is a fairly substantial...

Murphy is ahead by 273 votes, most ballots to be counted have been. Tedisco's only shot is now to challenge some votes. The onus is on him. Those looking to use NY-20 as a narrative about Obama, the GOP and what's next for American politics are plain out of luck. But overall this will be demoralizing for the GOP. In 2006 and 2008, it seems that Democrats have ultimately won a disproportionate share of very close races. Here and in Minnesota, If the Republican doesn't win convincingly on election day, they don't win period. Absentee ballots should no longer be...

Democrat Scott Murphy’s lead is now up to 178 votes over Republican Jim Tedisco, after a small number of additional absentee and overseas military ballots were counted in Dutchess and Rensselaer Counties. More notably, as the count begins to wind down, it seems like the GOP is prepared for a protracted court battle, at least by the sound of this internal memo sent this afternoon by a National Republican Congressional Committee staffer: From: ********** [mailto:********@nrcc.org] Sent: Thursday, April 16, 2009 12:04 PM To: Subject: NY-20 Update Hi there, I wanted to give you an update on NY-20. As of last...

COLUMBIA COUNTY — 20th Congressional District candidate Republican Jim Tedisco submitted a petition to the Dutchess County Supreme Court Thursday asking the judge to declare him the winner of the extremely close special election race, despite the numbers currently being in favor of his opponent, Democrat Scott Murphy. SNIP Tedisco is also asking the court to authorize recanvasing of all machine ballots to acquire the “proper” tallies. He would like them to reassess the validity of absentee votes already counted, and keep ballots challenged by Tedisco unopened. County Board of Elections Democratic Commissioner Virginia Martin said this new development could...

Democrats are accusing Republicans of walking away from the counting table in Dutchess County with the absentee ballots from three towns still unopened, thereby stalling a recount of the election between Scott Murphy and Jim Tedisco for Kirsten Gillibrand's open House seat. One of the Republicans charged with adjudicating ballot objections took the day off to attend a baseball game. Results released this morning by the State Board of Elections show that with more results in from Columbia and Washington counties, Murphy's lead has more than doubled, to 178. In Dutchess, things have come to a halt. In order for...

The Saratoga County Board of Elections finished counting ballots Wednesday, but absentee voters in the county a stronghold for Jim Tedisco did not give the Republican enough of a boost to lift him above Democrat Scott Murphy in the entire 10-county district. Tedisco finished in Saratoga County with a 163-vote advantage among absentee ballots, bringing the total county tally to 30,708 for Tedisco, 25,937 for Murphy. Elections staff in Washington County also finished counting on Wednesday, padding Murphy's election-night win with 267 more votes for a total of 7,283 for Murphy, 5,578 for Tedisco. At the end of the day,...

ALBANY—Judge James Brands just ruled that most of the over 1,200 contested absentee ballots in the race to replace Kirsten Gillibrand in Congress were objected to improperly based on discrepancies in their applications. This means many more ballots will be counted. Henry Berger, an attorney for Democratic candidate Scott Murphy, argued this morning that these ballots should all be counted because boards of election already issued them. Any problems with those ballots - from an invalid reason for the request to a missing date - cannot be challenged because the determination was already made by elections officials to send them...

Many of the absentee ballots from the GOP stronghold of Saratoga County have been counted, and the results are not good for Republican Jim Tedisco. Despite the inclusion of some 1,181 absentee ballots from Tedisco's strongest performing county, he still trails Democrat Scott Murphy by 86 votes, according to the state Board of Elections unofficial count. Tedisco won the majority of absentee ballots in Saratoga County, 672 to 509, but the 163-vote margin was not enough to overcome Murphy's lead. Tedisco's campaign was hoping to take over the lead once the absentee ballots from Saratoga County were included in the...