Lessons Learned? Well, Maybe

First, I’ll send you over to a longer column of mine which was just published over at PJM with some reflections on what we can take, if anything, from yesterday’s elections. In addition, though, I find myself pondering the alleged civil war in the GOP. The NY 23 special election was, after all is said and done, an aberration and a train wreck in the making pretty much from the beginning, and one which is unlikely to be repeated. The problem arose from New York State election law section 6-116 which dictates that in the event of a special election to fill a vacant office, there will be no primary. The candidates were, as has previously been noted, selected by county party officials.

In future elections, we’re going back to the standard system of holding a primary. Had that happened in the case of this year’s race, the locals would have almost undoubtedly selected a more moderate, conservative candidate and there would have been no need for any rampaging activity in support of Hoffman. Given a candidate suitable to the locals, no amount of sound and fury from the blogosphere or the Glenn Beck universe would have budged the electorate far from their own choice.

It’s a self-correcting system. In more Southern, social conservative areas you will already get a candidate in tune with those tendencies. But those influences from the outside aren’t going to be dragging any districts too far off track. New Jersey and Virginia have already put fairly moderate Republicans in their respective governors’ mansions and there’s no reason to think that a long established system is suddenly going to run haywire because of the wishes of a few.