Hochul gains odds-defying victory - Special election - The Buffalo News
Medicare overhaul looms as a seminal issue in the 2012 elections. Paul Ryan’s voucher/block grant plan for senior care brought out Democrats and Independents and apparently swayed more than a few Republicans in the Western New York special election to fill Chris Lee’s seat. In a district with a 7% registration advantage, Republicans appear to have both lost on the issue, as well as splitting the vote between Corwin and Jack Davis, nominally running as a Tea Party candidate.
Will the Tea Party be a divisive factor in 2012, as much as it was a galvanizing one in 2010? Will the ongoing attack on important entitlement plans and individual rights finally mobilize a lethargic Democratic electoral base? Or will what is left of the centrist GOP wing use the 26th District special election as a wake-up call to start moving away from radical, anti-Federal and “class-ist” policy initiatives?
Stay tuned.