The bizarre little special election in NY-23 has really gone sideways. With 87% of the polls reporting, results are 49% for Owens (the Dem) and 45% for Hoffman, the teabagger. From TPM:
(Scozzafava, whose name still appeared on the ballot, got 6%.) So it looks like a safe GOP seat might go to the Democrats as a result of teabagger interference.
Whoops, hang on: Hoffman just conceded.
Wow: a seat that’s been held by the GOP practically since the invention of the wheel has gone blue. Take a bow, teabaggers!
UPDATE (Wednesday): Teabaggers and Fetus fetishists behaving badly in NY-23:
“We’ve gotten reports that people are standing there, covered with Hoffman stickers and yelling anti-choice stuff at voters,” said O’Neill, a St. Lawrence native who has been running the party’s GOTV effort for Bill Owens in NY-23.
Hard to understand how that wouldn’t sway moderate conservative voters. RINOs!
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So much for being endorsed by Limpdick and Palin. A kick in the nuts to the far right.
To what Phatbiker said, ditto for hailing Glenn ‘Crocodile Tears’ Beck as your ‘mentor’.
Yep, this is good.
The GOP did alright tonight, they won big in Virginia and the governor they elected isn’t a teabagger but he’s a real fetus fetishist.
But Hoffman was the only candidate hand-picked by theocrats and teabaggers, and they were expecting a blowout. So this should tell them that they can’t run far-right candidates and expect to win. Unfortunately, they got close enough that they won’t learn anything from it, they’ll probably consider it a win.
Even though they ended up handing a GOP safe seat to the Dems
I wonder if Glenn Beck cried tonight.
“I wonder if Glenn Beck cried tonight.”
Only after masturbating furiously. Then he cried himself to sleep.
I noticed you didn’t mention the ‘tea-bagger’ wins in Virginia and New Jersey.
See folks, we will never settle for a pro-choice candidate anymore (rino), we’re through with them.
Might that be because those weren’t ‘tea-bagger’ wins?
Do try to keep up, Jaaaaaasper.
I was down in Area 23 last night. The amount of signs for Hoffman was unf*ing believable. They said, “Doug Hoffman – True Conservative”. Also, there were lots of signs that said, “Scozzafava/Owens – Way Too Liberal”. I would have to assume that they were put up by Dougie’s group. Nice to see this neighbourhood turn away from the crazy people.
Ha. Such a relief. Good New Yorkers say, ‘Fuck you, carpetbagging teabaggers’.
Jasper
NJ’s new governor-elect Chris Christie in his own words: “I’m pro-life but I wouldn’t force it down people’s throats”. (And his assistant is pro-choice.)
*cough*
FF – Jasper must not read the thread before he posts, since I did mention that the GOP “won big” in Virginia.
But those were standard-issue Republicans, not teabaggers.
SQ
Really, eh? What were they, road signs? Or lawn signs? If lawn signs, I guess it’s just indicative of the fervency of Hoffman’s followers, because it sure didn’t translate into the vote.
fern hill – This was sort of like a by-election in Hamilton, which would have gotten no attention at all if it hadn’t been for what it says about the civil war raging in the GOP. I think it’s the beginning of a third political party in the USA. Very interesting stuff.
And. Also. It’s a bit of a kick in the bag for the baggers, which can only be a good thing.
Antisocial
I haven’t really surfed around yet, but I’m pretty sure the narrative will frame this as a WIN! for the teabaggers. (Even though a seat that’s been GOP since the Civil War went to the Dems, thanks to the teabaggers’ “influence”.)
JJ: There were lots of lawn signs, but also signs stacked up (maybe 5 signs on top of each other) at the intersections of highways! I have never seen so many political signs…ever.
This is a very conservative part of New York state. I signed up to take a dog obedience course on Tuesday nights and was wondering about the people in the class (being a Canuck liberal). I knew I was with the right group when the first car I saw parked outside the canine centre had a bumper sticker that said, “January 9th, 2009 — The End of an Error”. My kind of people!
SQ – 5 signs on top of each other at intersections?? Weird. The teabaggers obviously dumped a lot of money into this thing
Good.
I used to vacation in upstate NY back in the day — a really pretty area, with lots of gingerbready-type old frame houses in immaculate condition. Super nice, friendly people. I can see how it would be a conservative-type area, but not the kind of conservative the teabaggers were flogging.
Well, JJ, that’s an interesting comment. How did these salt-of-the-earth, super-nice, well-grounded, friendly people turn into such frothing, out-of-control wingnuts? Should the left do the hard work of analysing why a guy like Hoffman, who would have been unelectable until recent times, has done so well coming out of nowhere, or do you just take the fun and easy route of proclaiming them all uneducated and stupid enough to be swayed by secret money and the rhetorical distortions of Palin, Beck and Limbaugh?
How long will it be until I read a story about the teabaggers claiming victory because the 6700 republican votes should have gone to them because they were cast in error, or at least 4465 of the votes were. I mean, comon, there couldn’t be that many disillusioned republicans that voted for the withdrawn republican candidate in protest, could there?
So, the teabags are rotting in the pot?
I believe this calls for a hearty round of “pbbbblllllltt”.
Peter
They didn’t. There are a lot of moderate conservatives, “Goldwater conservatives”, and just right-leaning centrists out there. Most of whom aren’t impressed by the teabagger movement.
It’s being done, over & over, by the “left” and by conservative moderates going “WTF?”
Apart from the lunatics who really are complete idiots (and yes, I know, both sides have them), some of the teabaggers are just low-information conservative folks who’ve been lead badly astray by their media and special interests like the private insurance lobby. There are plenty of good reasons to criticize Obama, but not because he’s a Marxist. Or because he wants to kill Granny. Or because he’s got a Secret Army that’s rounding up conservatives and putting them in FEMA camps. Or because he’s going to make Christianity illegal. Or because he wants to legalize infanticide. See what I mean? They’re not necessarily stupid, they’ve been scared stupid.
About Hoffman: 45% is a significant chunk of the vote, but I suspect about half of those just couldn’t bear to vote for a D so chose the lesser of 2 evils. If Hoffman hadn’t entered the race, Scozzafava would have won in a walk.
As I said above, I recognize that they’re not all stupid (I even agree with them on some points, like gov’t intrusion), but I’m afraid many of them are at the very least naive, and they get totally played by the Palins Becks and Limbaughs of the world. I don’t see how you can even doubt it. The rightwing media jumped on the bandwagon of fear, Marxism, Obama the Muslim etc., during the election and just ramped it up afterwards. Instead of accepting that there was a democratically-elected president in office who wasn’t the guy they voted for, and working to do better next time, these people have been riled up to believe the country is on the verge of a civil war.
That’s why a wingnut like Hoffman could come so close to getting elected.
Bleatmop – The teabaggers are already claiming this as a victory because they managed to force the GOP’s candidate out.
Given that they lost another congressional seat to the dems that the original GOP candidate would have easily won, I’m not sure that’s anything to write home about, but hey. Lemons, lemonade etc.
Bina – Some have said that this represents the shark-jumping point for the teabaggers. I wouldn’t be so sure.
As someone who now lives in New York City I can tell you that Chris Christie’s win in New Jersey is solely based on the fact that the Jon Corzine was a very unpopular governor.
People were still angry over his role in the 2006 New Jersey State Government shutdown and his attempts to privatize two NJ turnpikes. There was an attempt to recall him last year.
I wouldn’t read too much into that election.
I predict that Chris Christie will soon be unpopular too.
toujoursdan – I heard that Corzine was pretty unpopular, but I hadn’t heard that they tried to recall him last year. Obviously this win for the GOP doesn’t have much meaning beyond the day to day of NJ politics.
The attempted spin was that this, and other GOP wins in Virginia etc. were a reflection on the Obama administration, but so far it doesn’t look that way.
The big problem in Virginia was Dem turnout. You can’t get the Democratic base to turn out for you by saying that you’d vote against the Public Option.
The northern and most populous part of New Jersey is part of the New York City media market, so we see their commercials. All the NJ commercials were about Corzine’s failings and claims and counterclaims over who was going to raise or cut property taxes.
I seem to recall hearing that Virginia tends to elect a governor in the party opposite who is in the White House. I don’t know how long that trend is, but it seems to be a trend.