Turner, left, with wife Peggy at his Tuesday victory celebration (Mary Altaffer/AP)
Republican businessman Bob Turner Tuesday night staged a successful upset in New York's 9th district, winning the House seat formerly held by Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner. The GOP's pick-up in a district that's historically gone solidly Democratic also offers Republican strategists a new avenue of attack in their 2012 effort to defeat President Obama.With more than 80 percent of precincts reporting, the Republican businessman had received 54 percent of the vote and Democratic state Assemblyman David Weprin netted 46 percent, according to unofficial results from the Associated Press.
"We've been asked by the people of this district to send a message to Washington and I hope they hear it loud and clear," Turner told to a crowd of supporters in his victory speech Tuesday night. "We have been told this is a referendum and we're ready to say Mr. President, we're on the wrong track."
Republicans have been eager to cast this special election as a referendum on the president. Turner said Tuesday night that the election was about the Obama's fiscal policy, his handling of issues related to Israel as well as the country's continued job crisis. That indictment matches up nearly point-for-point with the one issued by the national GOP establishment in Washington.
"This clear rebuke of President Obama's policies delivers a blow to Democrats' goal of making Nancy Pelosi the Speaker again," National Republican Congressional Committee chairman Pete Sessions said in a statement. "New Yorkers put Washington Democrats on notice that voters are losing confidence in a President whose policies assault job-creators and affront Israel. An unpopular President Obama is now a liability for Democrats nationwide in a 2012 election that is a referendum on his economic policies."
New York District 9 voters may have been disappointed in the president, but polls also showed that they were also deeply disenchanted with their former congressman, Democrat Anthony Weiner, who resigned after admitting to sending lewd Twitter messages. Weiner had a 68 percent unfavorable rating among likely district voters in an Aug. 10 Siena Research Institute poll (pdf).
And as we've noted, Weprin did himself few favors by stumbling on the amount of the national debt and choosing to skip a debate during Hurricane Irene--incidents that furnished high-profile attack fodder to the GOP.
Weprin had not yet officially conceded as of Wednesday morning, but Democrats in Washington argued that his loss is not part of a larger picture.
"The results in NY-09 are not reflective of what will happen in November 2012 when Democratic challengers run against Republican incumbents who voted to end Medicare and cut Social Security while protecting tax loopholes for big corporations and the ultra wealthy," Session's counterpart, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair Steve Israel said in a statement.
It is often difficult and incorrect to extract national significance from a special election, especially one that includes an additional outside factor such as a scandal. But Democratic losses Tuesday in New York, as well as a landslide loss in a special election for Nevada's 2nd District, offer no good news for the Democratic party and the Obama administration as they seek to reenergize their base and restore confidence with supporters.
Politico reports Wednesday morning that prior to poll closings Tuesday Democratic donors and strategists commiserated during a "high-level" campaign conference call over their disappointment in Obama. An anonymous source on the call described the mood as "awful," according to the report.
"People feel betrayed, disappointed, furious, disgusted, hopeless," the source told Politico.
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