re: #53 EastSider

I won’t go so far as to call it a certainty, but I would call it likely. Owens was up 49-46 (at last count I saw, w/ +85% precincts reporting). Factor in that Scozz STILL got 5% of vote even though she dropped out, actively endorsed Owens, and that there were ads run by GOP against Hoffman. With some nat’l party money for messaging and marketing, some coaching as to the actual issues of the district, and an endorsement from a ranking moderate GOP leader, it isn’t unreasonable to think that Hoffman would have won.

All that said, I don’t think he SHOULD have won. Just that he COULD have.

Dede’s endorsement alone might have swung it. But her true color came out on that one.