NY9: Defeat of the hack

It's dangerous to write about a politics in a polity I don't have direct knowledge of. So I tread carefully into a discussion of NY9. Yesterday, the Republican candidate for the House seat won 54-46 over the Democrat in the heavily Democratic district. I won't say, as the RNC chairman did, that this election in Brooklyn and Queens "proves yet again that Obama is failing our country." Oh well, I guess that's what party chairman are paid to say. I haven't liked things coming out of the DNC chair's mouth either.

I have recent experience with unexpected special election upsets. In August 2009, Senator Edward Kennedy died, leaving his seat open. A party hack, Martha Coakley, won the Democratic nomination. Scott Brown, a moderate, won the Republican nomination. Brown got a lot of attention and support from national Tea Party groups, which have since labeled him a RINO.

So in the NY9 race, we have Weprin, a Democratic party hack who doesn't even live in the district. On the Republican side, we have Bob Turner, a conservative Catholic standard-issue Republican. I applaud NY9 for not electing the hack, and wish all other districts would elect the most sensible, moderate candidate.

Whoever picks the party's candidates, whether primary voters or party bosses, should consider this when making their choices. The election isn't going to be just a referendum on Obama. The next Congress will have a lot of work to do, but voters only get to choose from what is offered. Give them the best candidate you can, and try to decrease the deadlock in US government.