It’s time to call the race for Democrat Bill Owens.
With 84% of the votes counted the tally is as follows
Bill Owens (D): 57,845 or 49.2%
Doug Hoffman (C): 53,603 or 45.5%
That’s a margin of 4,200 votes and based on the trend we only have about 20,000 votes left. For Hoffman to win he would need to beat Owens by 20 points with the remaining voters.
As one of my favorite readers, Elrod, has pointed out this is a surprising defeat given that this district has been Republican since the 1870’s and the trend tonight is clearly for the Republicans. But when you push a hard right candidate in upstate New York you’re going to be disappointed.
As a quasi-Republican I’m not thrilled at losing a district but as a confirmed moderate I am glad to see the sensible candidate win.
Hopefully those on the right will learn a lesson about how to win elections (and those on the left won’t be silly enough to read too much into this, though if the right keeps going….)