So, What Does NY-23 and CA-10 Mean?

In NY-23 the GOP blew it...big time. They nominated a candidate that was actually more liberal than the Democrat in the race and thus opened themselves up to a third-party challenge. A lot of conservatives jumped on board Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman's bandwagon, and in a final act of treachery, the RINO candidate withdrew and endorsed the Democrat. That effectively gave the seat to the Democrats for the first time in 150 years.

Lesson for the GOP - don't let your candidates be chosen by local party hacks. Have a primary and let the GOP voters decide.

Some are trying to make this a conservative versus liberal thing, but it really ended up being a local versus outsider thing. The voters in NY-23 didn't like having high profile outsiders tell them who to vote for, so they rebelled and probably voted against their own self-interest.

For the next year Democrat Bill Owens will be kissing Nancy Pelosi's rear end and voting for all kinds of liberal claptrap like Obamacare and cap-and-tax, things that the NY-23 demographics suggest they won't support. The seat will be contested again in just one year, but there won't be a zombie candidate in the race to create the voter split we saw last night. That seat is still very much in play.

Doug Hoffman is apparently planning to run again, but I kind of hope he gets a primary challenge. Hoffman's ideology is sound, but he's pretty much charisma-free. He didn't come off that well on TV and I think a stronger candidate could be found.

CA-10 was a Dem seat and has been for a long time, so the fact that it was won by a Democrat isn't that meaningful. Some Democrats are rejoicing, but that just tells you how worried they were about yesterday's elections when they rejoice over winning a safe seat.

The real question is now the congressional Dems will react. Will they ignore the massacre in Virginia and New Jersey and claim the two House races as a mandate for Obamacare? Probably. Just look at this:

Brad Woodhouse, DNC spokesman, on NY 23..."The only competitive race that was really about the Obama agenda we won."

That's some first class spin.

Democrats will continue with the liberal push to their detriment because the national sentiment is still very much opposed to the big government agenda. Voters in close districts may not be willing to put up with representatives who support the Pelosi/Reid/Obama agenda.