Republicans have been beaten by Democrats in five consecutive contested special elections

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It is not often that a political party puts more than $750,000 behind a candidate in a high-profile Congressional race, only to see the intended beneficiary endorse the opposition.

But that is exactly what happened in the race for New York’s 23rd District, a convoluted contest that turned into an Election Day disaster for the National Republican Congressional Committee.

The initial backing of Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava in a solidly Republican district cost the House Republicans’ campaign arm a significant amount of cash, considering that she bowed out of the race under conservative pressure just days before the election. Then Ms. Scozzafava publicly threw her support behind Bill Owens, the eventual winner, who was sworn in Friday as the 258th Democrat in the House and will be a crucial vote in the health care debate.

While the traditional view among Congressional campaign veterans is that special House elections like the one in New York last Tuesday are given political significance beyond their true import, this one had some notable fallout.

Besides tapping the group’s treasury on behalf of a defector, it also raised questions about the capabilities of the Republican organization, which had already lost a special election in a Republican-leaning New York district earlier this year. It has now been beaten by Democrats in five consecutive contested special elections — the political version of going one on one.

Democrats and others contend that leaders of the Republican group badly misread the landscape in upstate New York and were slow to recognize the threat posed by an aggressive challenger, Douglas Hoffman, who entered as a third-party conservative.

Officials at the organization dispute that and say they quickly realized they had a problem when Ms. Scozzafava balked at signing a no-tax-increase pledge that is a staple of House Republican campaigns. And they pointed out that most of the money for advertising went toward commercials to weaken Mr. Owens.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/08/us/politics/08cong.html?_r=1&ref=us



:applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot:

[still_one]

1. and the MSM gave us the impression that two governor's races would have more impact on our lives

nationally than those in the House Of Representatives

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2. Republicans, too white, too male, too old, too rich, too out of touch