The race for the 20th district House seat vacated by New York Sen. Kristin Gillibrand might be over in the next 48 hours. Democrat Scott Murphy leads Rethuglican Jim Tedesco by a comfortable margin, despite numerous Rethug challenges.
The Rethugs poured resources and people into this contest, hoping to embarrass President Obama with a "referendum" on his policies. It turns out that polling is indicating that Tedesco might have won the race if he hadn't been opposed to Obama's stimulus bill -- the 20th district is in bad shape economically, and wants the stimulus money. It was also supposed to be an early test of Rethug National Committee chairman Michael "Tin Man" Steele's leadership, with some saying that his chairmanship would be in jeopardy if Tedesco lost. Let us be the first to hope so.
