Update 4-28-2009: Murphy declared the winner of the race by a couple hundred votes, as a result of doing better on absentee ballots than expected.
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The Politico is characterizing the virtual tie between Jim Tedesco (R) and Scott Murphy (D) as a loss for Republicans. (My guess, Tedesco will win comfortably after thousands of absentee and military ballots are counted.) The Politico argument is that a virtual tie is a loss for Republicans because of heavy Republican spending and bad economic times:
After all, if the party can’t win with a head start like that, on the heels of the AIG bonuses furor and a massive expansion of federal spending, where can it win?
But Democrats also focused on the race, through the equally heavy spending and campaign support from unions, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and Obama‘s own last minute intervention.
In a District that went 68% for Kirsten Gillibrand just five months ago, the Democrat just managed a tie. That’s no win, no matter how you spin it, and Republicans should be heartened that they were able to close the gap in a District which voted for Obama and elected a Democrat to Congress comfortably in the two previous elections.
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