Murphy Up By 273 Votes in NY District 20

George Wenschhof Bio

All of the absentee, military and overseas ballots have now been counted and Democrat Scott Murphy leads 79,839 to 79,566 for Republican Jim Tedisco. This special election is needed to fill the House seat vacated when Kristen Hillibrand was picked by NY Governor David Patterson to fill the vacant Hillary Clinton U.S. Senate seat. Politico.com has more here.

Most of us who had followed this special election in District 20 felt it was too close to call and that turned out to be the case. This is much to the chagrin of Republican Leaders including RNC Chair Michael Steele who had hoped to use a Republican victory here as a way to say voters were turning against the Obama administration.

Kristen Hillibrand, who had held the seat previously is a moderate Democrat who had surprised many by winning in a district with a predominate number of Republican registered voters. President Obama had also won this upstate NY district with 51% in the election last year.

There remain 1,773 challenged ballots from the campaigns with 810 being Democrats, 653 Republicans and 310 Independents. It is not impossible for Republican Jim Tedisco to make up the difference, but it is unlikely. Let's hope this does not turn into a mini Minnesota where Republican Norm Coleman is still using legal action to challenge his defeat to Democrat Al Franken five months after the election.

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