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发帖数: 29846 | 1 Sep 13 11:56 PM US/Eastern
By BETH FOUHY
Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) - Republicans have scored an upset victory in a New York City
House race that became a referendum on President Barack Obama's economic
policies.
Retired media executive and political novice Bob Turner defeated Democratic
state Assemblyman David Weprin (WEHP'-rihn) in a special election Tuesday to
succeed Rep. Anthony Weiner (WEE'-nur), a seven-term Democrat who resigned
in June after a sexting scandal.
The heavily Democratic district spanning parts of Queens and Brooklyn had
never sent a Republican to the House. But frustration with the continued
weak national economy gave Republicans the edge.
Turner has vowed to bring business practicality to Washington and push back
on spending and taxes.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP'
s earlier story is below.
Democrat David Weprin faced an unusually tight race against Republican Bob
Turner in a special election Tuesday in New York's heavily Democratic 9th
Congressional District, where voters unhappy with President Barack Obama
could elect a Republican for the first time.
The contest to replace disgraced Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner, who
resigned in a sexting scandal, had become too close to call, with public
opinion polling showing a slight edge for Turner, a retired media executive
with no previous political experience.
Polls closed at 9 p.m., and results trickled in slowly. With more than 30
percent of precincts reporting late Tuesday night, Turner held a slight lead
over Weprin.
The state replaced outdated lever-operated voting machines last year in
favor of paper ballots and optical scanners, which take more time to close
and process. A Board of Elections spokeswoman said the vote-tallying system
was running smoothly and there were no problems to report.
Both candidates hit the streets Tuesday, meeting voters and trying to boost
turnout, the key in most special elections. Weprin had a full public
schedule of get-out-the-vote events, while Turner's only scheduled public
appearances were his vote Tuesday morning and an after-the-vote party at a
restaurant. His campaign said he would be out in the district all day
drumming up support.
Democrats, panicked at the prospect of an embarrassing loss, poured cash
into the race and sent in their stars to try to save Weprin, a state
lawmaker who was forced to defend Obama's economic policies even as he tried
to stress his own independence and close ties to the community.
Republicans worked to frame the race as a referendum on Obama, even though
turnout is usually low in a special congressional election.
"It wasn't planned that way, but this is the only nationally contested
election on the federal level, so it is, in a way, a referendum on President
Obama's policies," Turner said Tuesday.
Nevada also had a House election Tuesday after a shake-up that started with
Republican Sen. John Ensign's resignation amid a sex scandal.
On Monday, House Republican Leader Eric Cantor argued that a Turner victory
would be an "unprecedented win" and the latest evidence of voter
dissatisfaction with Obama.
"That district is not unlike the rest of the country. People are very
unhappy with the economy tight now, and, frankly, I would say unhappy with
the lack of leadership on the part of this White House," Cantor, of Virginia
, told reporters in the Capitol.
Back in the district that spans parts of Queens and Brooklyn, Turner
campaigned with Rudolph Giuliani, the popular former Republican mayor.
There also were six special elections for vacant state Assembly seats and
several local races on the ballot around the state.
Weprin campaigned at a senior center Tuesday and greeted voters at a subway
stop with Democrats including U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler.
With a large population of Catholic and Orthodox Jewish residents, the 9th
Congressional District is broadly blue collar and more conservative than
many others in the city. It's the kind of white, working-class environment
that Obama struggled with in his 2008 campaign even as he was easily winning
most other traditional Democratic constituencies.
A Siena Poll released Friday showed Turner leading Weprin among likely
voters, with a 50 to 44 percent margin. The same poll found just 43 percent
of voters approving of Obama's job performance, while 54 percent said they
disapproved. The president fared much worse among independents. Just 29
percent said they approved of his job performance, while 68 percent
disapproved.
On Tuesday, Weprin said the polished Democratic machinery would get people
to the polls.
"We have a lot of people with us, and I think we are going to pull out the
votes," he said. "I think the polls are not going to reflect who's going to
come out to vote."
Hoping to shift the momentum in the final days, the Democratic Congressional
Campaign Committee invested more than $500,000 in ads in New York's pricey
television market. An independent Democratic group, the House Majority PAC,
ran ads, too. And Obama for America, part of the Democratic National
Committee that support the president's re-election, urged volunteers to
rally behind Weprin.
The party also enlisted two of its biggest guns, former President Bill
Clinton and Gov. Andrew Cuomo, to record phone calls for Weprin. And
Democrats relied on organized labor and other affiliated groups to bring
voters to the polls.
"When voters learn the real difference between David Weprin and Bob Turner,
they'll vote their Democratic values," DCCC spokeswoman Jennifer Crider said.
Weprin tried to cast Turner as hostile to popular entitlement programs such
as Social Security and Medicare. It's a formula that worked for another
Democrat, Kathy Hochul, who won a heavily Republican upstate New York
district in a special election last May by vowing to protect those programs.
But Weprin, an orthodox Jew, was on the defensive on gay marriage and Israel
, which could have peeled away some support from the Orthodox community. He
voted in favor of same-sex nuptials in the New York Assembly, and some
Jewish voters threatened to withhold support for Weprin because they
disapprove of Obama's policies toward the Jewish state. Former Mayor Ed Koch
, a Democrat, endorsed Turner.
"Rightly or wrongly, it is (part of the race)," Turner said Tuesday. "This
president has been less friendly than any other president in recent history,
and I think today voters can hold him to account for it."
The House seat opened up in June, when Weiner was pushed by party leaders to
resign after sending sexually provocative tweets and text messages to women
he met online.
The trouble for Weiner, who served seven terms, began when a photo of a man'
s crotch surfaced on his Twitter feed. He initially denied the photo was of
him but later admitted it was.
___
Associated Press writers Andrew Taylor and Julie Pace in Washington
contributed to this report.
___
Beth Fouhy can be reached on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/bfouhy
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may
not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
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