The glorious thing about the three-way race for New York’s 23rd district congressional seat next month is, who actually gets elected just massively doesn’t matter. Recent polls have the Dem at 33%, the Republican establishment candidate at 29%, and the insurgent Conservative at 23%. There’s a real chance this insurgency could throw the election to the Dem – and it doesn’t matter. Liberal Dem, squish Republican, or Tea-Party Conservative, the winner will make zero difference in Nancy Pelosi’s control of the House of Representatives through the end of 2010. At which point, the NY-23 seat will be up for another election right along with the rest of the House.
Tea-Party fiscal conservatives can back Doug Hoffman, the NY Conservative Party candidate, Admiral Farragut-style (“Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead”) with nothing to lose and everything to gain. If Dem Bill Owens ends up winning with 34% of the vote while Republican Dede “I’d have voted for the Stimulus Bill” Scozzafava and Hoffman each get 33%, the usual suspects will no doubt tout it as a triumphant endorsement of Obamanomics. 66% of the local voters, and we, will know better. And whether their handpicked squish loses or just barely squeaks in, Republican establishments across the country will have to think a lot harder than their people in NY-23 did about coming up with candidates for November 2010 acceptable to those damn Tea-Party troublemakers.
[Update a few minutes later]
