The seat had not gone to a Republican since the 1920’s, but on Tuesday, the heavily Democratic congressional seat left vacant by Anthony Weiner went back to Republican control, with the win of Bob Turner. Republicans also won a special election in northern Nevada, where Republican Mark Amodei led Democrat Kate Marshall, 56 percent to 39 percent almost from the start.
The New York seat was originally held by Anthony Weiner, but after his Twitter mishap where he lied about sending naked pictures of himself to various women, both Democrats and Republicans demanded his resignation. The Nevada election was to replace Republican John Ensign, after his affair with a married campaign worker and a later revelation of bribery.
Both Republicans in the races tied their winning over their Democratic challengers to President Obama and his handling of the economy, and with that, Republican conservative radio and television shows went rampant with this new talking point.
Reports indicated that the Nevada election was basically ignored by Democrats, as they believed they had no chance of winning the heavily Republican constituents in that district. But in New York, Democrats went into a frantic, final, last-minute push to save the seat dumping $500,000 into the race in the final days, after it became clear that the seat could go to a Republican.
Although the New York district could eventually be zoned out through re-districting, Democrats should have tried harder to avoid this victory to the Republicans. Giving them even more ammunition to spew their lies is simply not worth it. The talking points about this Republican win in New York and associating it to President Obama and the economy, will be around for a long, long time.
