Politics
Out of context: Reply #6713
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For the GOP, the long road back to power has to start somewhere, and a seat like this one with a 70,000 Republican voter registration advantage was the logical place to begin.
After all, if the party can’t win with a head start like that, on the heels of the AIG bonuses furor and a massive expansion of federal spending, where can it win?
For that reason Republicans bet heavily on the race, with Republican National Committee Michael Steele pumping money and resources into the district, and the National Republican Congressional Committee pouring in $818,000 on top of that. Their efforts were aided by conservative groups, led by the National Republican Trust PAC, which spent an additional $819,000.
Murphy, a businessman who began the campaign with almost no name recognition, started off as an underdog. He had no experience running for office, tapped for the Democratic nomination largely more because of his ability to self-finance a race.
But as he became better known and tied his fortunes to Obama and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who vacated the House seat and remains popular within the district, he closed a double-digit gap in the polls and turned the race into a dead heat at the end.
His rise in the polls came as the race turned into a referendum over Obama’s economic proposals. Murphy argued that Obama’s stimulus was necessary for revitalizing upstate New York’s struggling economy, while Tedisco argued the plan was full of wasteful spending after initially declining to take a position.