Man Bites Dog
By tristero
While Digby already noted the potential importance of the special election in New York-26, this article about the contest is still worth reading. Not because it’s a well written report – it isn’t, it just describes the horserace and gallops over the ideas – but because of the way in which the Democratic challenger, and the race, was described. We have rarely seen either this kind of activity from a Democratic challenger in a difficult race, and even less frequently read this kind of positive coverage. It’s almost as if running an exciting campaign that appeals to voters encourages a more positive attitude from the press.
I know: it’s more complicated than that. Even so, Kathy Hochul is clearly doing something very right:
Two months ago, the Democrat, Kathy Hochul, was considered an all-but-certain loser in the race against the Republican, Jane Corwin. But Ms. Hochul seized on the Republican’s embrace of the proposal from Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, to overhaul Medicare, and she never let up…
The district, which stretches from Buffalo to Rochester, has been in Republican hands for four decades, producing influential figures like Representative Jack Kemp and siding with Carl P. Paladino, a Republican, over Andrew M. Cuomo in the governor’s race last year…
Ms. Hochul… campaigned energetically and with great focus…
Ms. Hochul maintained a positive image conveying a homespun quality, speaking with a Buffalo accent, connecting naturally with voters…
In her victory speech Tuesday night, she noted that her mother and father, who have retired to Florida, were making phone calls to voters on her behalf for months.
..given the makeup of the district, one of four in the state that John McCain carried in 2008, Republicans said they needed to understand if they had misread the public.
“It’s a Republican district with a solid Republican candidate,” said Representative Peter T. King, a Republican from Long Island.
“What went wrong? We definitely have to determine the extent to which the Medicare issue hurt us…”
The seat became vacant in February when Representative Christopher Lee, a Republican, abruptly resigned after he e-mailed a shirtless photo of himself to a woman and it was published on the Internet…
The race also marked the debut of House Majority PAC, a group recently established by Democratic strategists as a counterbalance to the slew of conservative organizations that helped Republicans make significant gains in the 2010 elections. House Majority PAC spent nearly $400,000 on advertising in the race.