Crush Liberalism

NY-23 not over?

I didn’t know a recount was going on in NY-23.  Story here, but here’s the lede:

Conservative Doug Hoffman conceded the race in the 23rd Congressional District last week after receiving two pieces of grim news for his campaign: He was down 5,335 votes with 93 percent of the vote counted on election night, and he had barely won his stronghold in Oswego County.

As it turns out, neither was true.

But Hoffman’s concession — based on snafus in Oswego County and elsewhere that left his vote undercounted — set off a chain of events that echoed all the way to Washington, D.C., and helped secure passage of a historic health care reform bill.

Democratic Rep. Bill Owens was quickly sworn into office on Friday, a day before the rare weekend vote in the House of Representatives. His support sealed his party’s narrow victory on the health care legislation.

Now a recanvassing in the 11-county district shows that Owens’ lead has narrowed to 3,026 votes over Hoffman, 66,698 to 63,672, according to the latest unofficial results from the state Board of Elections.

In Oswego County, where Hoffman was reported to lead by only 500 votes with 93 percent of the vote counted election night, inspectors found Hoffman actually won by 1,748 votes — 12,748 to 11,000.

The new vote totals mean the race will be decided by absentee ballots, of which about 10,200 were distributed, said John Conklin, communications director for the state Board of Elections. …

From what I’ve read elsewhere, the odds of Hoffman overcoming the deficit are not very good.  In all probability, he will still lose, only by a thinner margin.  Then again, we kept hearing during the Franken-Coleman recount how it was “nearly impossible” for Franken to overcome Coleman’s lead.  Although I don’t think ACORN was working on Hoffman’s campaign, so his odds just went down another notch.

Anywho, wouldn’t it be funny to see what would happen if Hoffman actually did overcome Owens, despite the fact that Owens has already been sworn in and quickly voted for PelosiCare?

November 12, 2009 - Posted by crushliberalism | New York