Conservative Denied Victory in NY-23, Despite Palin and Pawlenty Support: PHOTO
The Republicans got the press, but the Democrat got the votes in the special election in New York's 23rd Congressional District. On an otherwise dismal night for his party, Democrat Bill Owens captured 49 percent of the vote. Conservative Doug Hoffman won 45 percent of the vote, while Republican Dede Scozzafava picked up a crucial five percent, even after dropping out of the race. Owens , an Air Force retiree and lawyer, will become the first Democrat in more than 100 years to hold the seat,...

The Battle of NY-23 and Sarah Palin's Purity Problem
Once you whip up a mob, can you control it? That may be Sarah Palin's next problem. Before the votes were counted Tuesday night, the former Republican vice presidential candidate was already something of a winner. Though her candidate in the special election for a House seat in upstate New York, Doug Hoffman, lost to Democrat Bill Owens -- in an area that hasn't sent a Democrat to the House since the 1800s -- Palin, by intervening in the race, had established herself as a successful ideological...

Dem Owens Takes NY-23
Retired Air Force Capt. Bill Owens has pulled off a major upset for the Democratic Party and won the closely watched election in New York state's 23rd congressional district. Owens was ahead of Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman 49% to 45% with 92% of precincts reporting, according to AP . Moderate Republican Dede Scozzafava received 6% of the vote despite withdrawing from the race over the weekend under pressure from the Party's right wing.

Democrat wins House seat in heavily GOP area in NY
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - Democrat Bill Owens has captured the special election for a New York congressional seat that became a fight over the identity of the Republican Party. Owens defeated Conservative Doug Hoffman and Republican Dierdre Scozzafava (skoh-zuh-FAH'-vuh) in the heavily Republican 23rd congressional District in rural northern New York. Scozzafava abruptly withdrew Saturday and supported Owens. Hoffman has conceded the race. With 88 percent of the precincts reporting, Owens had 49...

Liberals Targeting Moderate Democrats in Health Care Debate: PHOTO
Get on the Health overhaul bandwagon, or don't count on our help in your re-election. That's the hardball message liberal groups are hurling at moderate Democratic senators in a battle that is dividing their party.

Democrat wins House seat in heavily GOP area in NY
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - Democrat Bill Owens has captured the special election for a New York congressional seat that became a fight over the identity of the Republican Party. Owens defeated Conservative Doug Hoffman and Republican Dierdre Scozzafava (skoh-zuh-FAH'-vuh) in the heavily Republican 23rd congressional District in rural northern New York. Scozzafava abruptly withdrew Saturday and supported Owens. Hoffman has conceded the race. With 88 percent of the precincts reporting, Owens had 49...

Democrats Keep California Congressional Seat: PHOTO
Democratic Lt. Gov. John Garamendi has won a special congressional election in the 10th District of California, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Tuesday night. Garamendi had been polling well ahead -- by double digits -- of his GOP opponent, businessman and attorney David Harmer, since the start of the race. Democrats have an 18-point edge in registration in the Bay Area district, according to the Los Angeles Times . Garamendi, 64, will replace Democratic Rep. Ellen O. Tauscher, who stepped...

Democrats maintain grip on N.J. Assembly
Democrats held on to their comfortable majority in New Jersey's Assembly, presenting a challenge to Christopher J. Christie, the former U.S. attorney who defeated incumbent Democratic Gov. Corzine for the governorship. At the same time, both state Senate seats vacated as a result of last year's congressional Elections were retained by their respective parties. In the Senate, Democrat James Beach - a Voorhees resident who served as Camden County clerk and freeholder - bested Republican Joseph...

Democrats lose key governor posts
Barack Obama's Democrats have lost ground to rival Republicans in two key Elections for Governor, a year after he was elected US president. Republican Chris Christie defeated the incumbent Democratic Governor of New Jersey Jon Corzine on Wednesday, winning 50 percent of the vote to 44 percent in the heavily Democrat state, US media projected after most votes had been counted. Earlier on Tuesday, another Republican candidate, Bob McDonnell, was elected Governor in the crucial swing state of...

What Doug Hoffman's Loss Means to Conservatives: PHOTO
(CBS/ AP) Conservatives overreached, and Tip O'Neill's dictum reins supreme. That special election in New York's 23rd congressional district turned out not to be worth all of the sound and fury. The fact is that the district IS special. Since the Civil War cannons fell silent, it's never been occupied by a Democrat. It's one of the largest districts east of the Mississippi and one of the whitest. It is about $8,000 poorer, per person, than the American average. It's been ruled -- some say, by...

NY-23: How Sarah Palin Stands to Win (and Charlie Crist Stands to Lose): PHOTO
Much has been made over the special election in New York's 23 rd Congressional District. For some, the attention might seem a bit much, given that it is merely one of 435 House seats. In reality, this race is about much more than one House seat. It is a proxy battle in the long-running war between establishment Republicans and grassroots conservatives. Although GOP candidate Dede Scozzafava endorsed the Democrat over Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman, after quitting the race with three...

Democrat in northern NY House race has early lead in race that's highlighted GOP divisions
ALBANY, N.Y. — Democrat Bill Owens had an early lead of 51.5 percent in a special Congressional election in northern New York that grabbed national headlines in its final days as it highlighted divisions within the Republican Party. Owens led with 51.4 percent to Conservative Doug Hoffman's 43.7 percent with just 29 percent of precincts reporting in New York's 23rd House district. Republican Dierdre Scozzafava (skoh-zuh-FAH'-vuh), who withdrew from the race Saturday, still picked up 4.9...

NY-23: Nice going Palin, Pawlenty
Let's all give a hearty round of applause to the teabaggers, who took what would've been a very good night for Republicans and ruined it by helping Democrats pick up a seat they hadn't held since the Civil War. Glenn Beck? Thanks! Sarah Palin? Thanks! Tim Pawlenty? Thanks! Club for Growth? Thanks! Ironically, the NRCC, the RNC, Newt Gingrich and the smartest Republican in the world, Tom Davis (former NRCC chair) were right -- the Republican Party needs to be more of a big tent to successfully...

CNN's Crowley: NY 23's Hoffman the Choice of 'Tea Bag Partyers'?: PHOTO
CNN's Candy Crowley made an oblique reference to her colleague Anderson Cooper's infamous “teabagger” remark on Monday's Situation Room. As she reported on the race in New York's 23rd congressional district, Crowley referred to Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman as “ the choice of many on the right, including Sarah Palin, former House leader Dick Armey and -tea bag partyers '” [audio clips available here ]. The CNN political correspondent detailed the different key...

NY-23 Will Set Course for Republican Party: PHOTO
In the last month alone, New York's special election for John McHugh's congressional seat has featured a coveted Sarah Palin Facebook endorsement, a less coveted Rush Limbaugh accusation of beastiality, a Country Music singer threatening to drop a house on Nancy Pelosi, and the crescendo of any out-of-control political opera: A candidate implosion. And that's just on the Republican side of the equation. When voters went to the polls from Plattsburg to Owsego Tuesday, they saw three names on the...

The Surprise In NY-23: PHOTO
Well, I had begun to assume a big Hoffman victory. Not so fast. Owens has a small but real lead, with over 60 percent of the votes in. More interesting, Palin just doesn't poll very well in a district that is almost tailor-made for her: 43% view her favorably to 44% negative. This is in a poll with a party ID breakdown of R+14 that shows Doug Hoffman leading by 17 points. If Palin's not popular in an electorate with that mix she's not going anywhere nationally. NY-23 is a district...

GOP victories send message to Democrats
By seizing gubernatorial seats in Virginia and New Jersey, Republicans on Tuesday dispelled any notion of President Obama's electoral invincibility, giving the GOP a lift and offering warning signs to Democrats ahead of the 2010 midterm Elections. Republican leaders were quick to cast Tuesday's outcome as a rebuke of Obama, nearly a year after his election. "It sends a clear signal that voters have had enough of the president's liberal agenda," Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele said...

Contests serve as warning to Democrats: It's not 2008 anymore: PHOTO
Off-year Elections can be notoriously unreliable as predictors of the future, but as a window on how the political landscape may have changed in the year since President Obama won The White House, Tuesday's Republican victories in Virginia and New Jersey delivered clear warnings for the Democrats.

What Ousted GOP Candidate Endorsing Dem in Messy NY Race Means (Guest Voice)
What Ousted GOP Candidate Endorsing Dem in Messy NY Race Means by Jon Wells The drama over the special election in NY-23 has taken a variety of surprising turns over the past few weeks. The Republican candidate, Dede Scozzafava, was selected by a county board of GOP supervisors and got a load of initial cash and support from the national Republican establishment. But a plethora of her policy stands made many in the base question why she was selected in the first place. There are her positions...

Democrats win big in Camden County
Camden City and Gloucester Township will have new Democratic mayors, and Cherry Hill's Township Council will remain Republican-free, after an overwhelmingly victorious Election Day for Camden County Democrats. Dana Redd, a 41-year-old state senator, city councilwoman, and darling of the Democratic political establishment, stampeded past three independent challengers to succeed Camden Mayor Gwendolyn Faison, who is retiring. "Change is coming to Camden, and I'm looking forward to uniting...

111 New Federal Bureaucracies Created in Democrats' Health Care Bill: PHOTO
The House Republican Conference has compiled a list of all the new boards, bureaucracies, commissions, and programs created in the House Health Care bill. There are 111 of them.

Heckler leads in Bucks D.A. race
David W. Heckler, a former prosecutor and state legislator who gave up his judge's robe to run for Bucks County district attorney, was headed for a convincing victory yesterday. The 62-year-old Doylestown Republican led what was shaping up as another GOP sweep of county row offices, despite dramatic voter-registration gains by Democrats. With all but three of 307 districts counted, Heckler held a commanding lead over Democrat Chris Asplen, 45, of New Britain, in his bid to become the county's...

Democrats win California House seat
Democrats win Northern Calif. House seat, elect career politician loyal to Obama policies

Republican congressional victories in two states a rude wake up call for Democrats
Washington, Nov. 4 - ANI: Just a year after President Barack Obama swept into The White House, Republican congressional victories in Virginia and New Jersey yesterday came as serious warnings for the Democrats. The changing political landscape in both states revealed cracks in the Obama 2008 coalition and demonstrated that Republicans have the more energized constituency heading into next year's midterm Elections, The Washington Post reports. According to exit polls, one key change came among...