In an outcome with national implications, Bob Turner, the retired television executive, won the special election to replace Weiner in New York's Ninth Congressional District (Brooklyn and Queens) yesterday and becomes the first Republican to represent the district in some 90 years.
Turner, a solid conservative, was the upset GOP winner over originally heavily favored career politician David Weprin, a Democrat, despite the 3-to-1 Democrat registration advantage. Turner was also endorsed by several high-profile Democrats in the area.
The House seat went to the Republicans because of the Obama administration's mishandling of the economy and Obama's hostility towards the state of Israel. Another factor may have been Weprin's support as a state legislator for the new same sex marriage law in New York according to many analysts.
Notably, the Democrat machine's usual and tiresome scare mongering against Republicans failed to gain any traction in this election. The New York Post reports that "Weprin’s campaign, the Democratic Party and unions poured more than $1.5 million into the race" in the failed effort.
Dare we say it...the Democrats "pulled a boner" perhaps in trying to keep the seat in their party's traditional column. And while conventional wisdom is that NY09 will be phased out in redistricting, conventional wisdom--as shown by this election result--is often wrong.
President Obama appears to have accomplished his stated goal of uniting the country--Democrats, Republicans, and Independents are united against his bureaucratic socialist agenda. In the meantime, the media and the Democrats continue to delude themselves with bogus stories (based on rigged opinion polling) that the Tea Party movement is falling out of favor or losing vitality.
In another special House election to fill a vacancy, Republican Mark Amodei was easily elected in Nevada's Second Congressional District.
A pro-Turner campaign commercial:
