RNC Chair Steele Foolishly Boasted That NY Special Election Was ‘Credible Repudiation’ Of Obama

This guy is a treasure trove of oops. Via Think Progress-

The New York special election was held on March 31, 2009. Wasting absolutely no time, the very next day, Steele wrote an audacious -- and foolish -- op-ed in Politico, triumphantly declaring the outcome a defeat for President Obama's agenda:

Tedisco’s victory will be a credible repudiation of the spending spree that Obama and Congress have been on since January. Even the executive director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee acknowledged over the weekend that the race was “a referendum on the Economic Recovery Act and Barack Obama’s policies.” Well, the DCCC is right — this likely Republican victory is a referendum on the president. [...]

Well, the voters have spoken, and while the results are still pending, Republicans are confident that the final vote tallies will show those voters have rejected the president’s approach. [...]

The ground has shifted, and is shifting, as the voters become increasingly worried about Obamanomics. [...]

Tuesday’s election was a vote of "no confidence" in the Democrats’ tax, spend and borrow approach. I hope Obama and congressional Democrats are listening.

"That's a seat that we should be able to go in and be competitive and win," Steele said prior to the special election. "I'm gonna put -- make it a focal point, right out of the box."

Huge oops.

Democratic Model Projects Murphy Win in NY-20

By GottaLaff

The Rushpublics are wishing this election would prove to be a slam against President Obama. Hopefully, that wish won't come true:

Democratic projections obtained by The Fix show Scott Murphy (D) beating Jim Tedisco (R) in New York's 20th district by 210 votes after all outstanding absentee and military ballots are counted.

"The projections -- based off of the county performances by Murphy and state Assemblyman Jim Tedisco (R) on election night -- show the Democrat gaining 115 votes in Warren County, 96 votes in Columbia County and 70 votes in Washington County as well as scoring smaller gains in several other counties. Tedisco's only major gain, according to the model, will be in Saratoga County where he will net an additional 116 votes."

However, an email from the NRCC disputes the projections noting New York has registration by party. "This allows us to see which absentee ballots are being returned by both parties. There is currently a Republican advantage among the absentee and military ballots that exceed the current Murphy lead. This is not a 'model,' but raw data."

Of course, that doesn't mean we know how they voted yet.

UPDATE:

Hours after the NRCC accused Democrats of trying to "steal" the election in which their candidate was actually leading, Rush Limbaugh took to the airwaves to claim that Murphy's lead was a "slam dunk loss for the Democrats".

Polls Closed in NY-20

By GottaLaff

Jim Tedisco v. Scott Murphy. Twitter's going nuts with this. The results are inconclusive:

The AP now says the race is too close to call. "There are at least 6,000 and possibly as many as 10,000 absentee ballots that will not be included in the results for at least a week."

Update VII: New York agreed to count overseas absentee ballots until April 13, so this race may not be settled for a while.

Scott Murphy Gains on Tedisco in NY-20

Oh oh. NY-20 is the race that looks to make or break Chairman Steele.

With less than three weeks until the NY-20 special election, Scott Murphy (D) has cut James Tedisco's 12 point lead to just 4 points, according to a new Siena Research Institute poll.

Tedisco now leads the race 45% to 41%.

Key factor: "While two weeks ago, voters said Tedisco would do a better job than Murphy representing them on six issues, Murphy now leads on two of those issues, including the most important issue for 20th C.D. voters: the economy."

A Democratic poll yesterday also showed the race tightening.