Bill Owens beats Doug Hoffman, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh

The "RHINO" purge failed

Quote:

The outcome made history in the rural House district covering Northern and Central New York, one of the geographically largest east of the Mississippi. It is the first time someone other than a Republican has represented the heart of the region – Jefferson, St. Lawrence and Franklin counties – since the GOP was established in 1856 and the first Republicans were seated in the House in 1857. The last Democrat elected to a House seat from the region was Frances E. Spinner, who represented St. Lawrence County in Congress from 1855 to 1857. The results also struck a blow for the Republican Party, which not only lost the district, but exposed a bitter national divide within the party between its moderate and conservative factions. "This race turned out to be the worst of all possible worlds for Republicans as not only did the Democrat, Bill Owens, win a seat that Democrats have not held in more than 100 years, but what occurred in New York has exposed a war within the Republican Party that will not soon end," said Tim Kaine, chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Chris Van Hollen, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, also basked in what he called "a double-blow for national Republicans and their hopes of translating this summer’s ‘tea party’ energy into victories at the ballot box." Van Hollen added that Republican now "have to deal with an emboldened and well-funded far right-wing that refuses to tolerate moderate Republicans with differing opinions."

If Palin and the right-wing talking heads have their way on candidate selection,
this example forecasts that there will be less republicans in Congress.

Fewer Republicans in Congress, maybe, but didn't two Republicans just get elected governor?

I live in the district the just elected Bill Owens. It was an interesting race because the candidates didn't run many ads for them selves. We did see a lot of ads paid for by various special interest groups (esp. unions) telling us who *not* to vote for, without coming out and saying "vote for this guy/gal)"

Hoffman worried me because he's a right-wing nut job. Bill Owens worries me because some of his opinions are standard Democrat fare: rob from the rich, give to the poor, and he's a lawyer -- somehow I think it's a bad idea to let the guys who make their living from interpreting the law actually create the law. Both are accountants that help wealthy people cheat on^H^H^H^H^H^H minimize their taxes, so I didn't really expect any tax reform from either of them.

I like Scozzafava (sp) best simply because I didn't expect her to do anything..