Tedisco concedes
Republican Jim Tedisco conceded the upstate New York special election to Democrat Scott Murphy in a phone call on Friday, according to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
The DCCC quickly emailed out at a statement from Chairman Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) congratulating Murphy for defeating Tedisco in the drawn out special election for Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s (D) former House seat.
Van Hollen also pointed out that national Republicans made the race a top priority.
“In trying to win the NY-20 special election, the [Republican National Committee], [National Republican Congressional Committee], and their Republican allies went all in on the losing gamble that voters would prefer their ‘just say no’ approach to President Obama’s bold plans to get the economy back on track,” Van Hollen said.
UPDATE: In a statement, Tedisco also congratulated Murphy.
“Earlier today, I called and congratulated Scott Murphy on a hard-fought contest and wished him well as the next Congressman of the 20th Congressional district,” Tedisco said. “I also expressed my willingness to work with him to ensure that the families of Upstate New York are not left behind as our nation strives for economic recovery.”
The statement marks the end of what has been a highly competitive special election that received significant national attention. New RNC Chairman Michael Steele made the race a top priority, and Republicans sought to paint the race as a referendum on President Obama’s early policies, such as his economic stimulus package.
And for the first few weeks of the race, Tedisco declined to state whether he would have voted for the package, a position that dogged him in those early stages.
Republicans held a significant advantage of having 70,000 more registered voters in the district, which was held by a Republican before Gillibrand won it in 2006. And, moreover, Tedisco started the race with much name identification in the district and a significant lead in the race, according to polling.
But Murphy and the Democrats were able to close the gap and the race and Murphy took the lead in polling days before Election Day.
On Election Day, Murphy came out on top by about 60 votes with thousands of absentee ballots still to be counted. What ensued was canvassing, recanvassing, a constantly changing vote count, ballot challenges and court dates. As of early this week, though, it became increasingly clear the Tedisco would not be able to overcome Murphy’s 400 vote lead.
UPDATE 2: The Hill’s Reid Wilson has a fuller recap of the race, including on how much money national Democrats and Republicans spent on the race.
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