GOP Wins Two Important Special Elections

Tuesday was a good day for two GOP congressional candidates in special elections, one in Nevada and one in New York. Do these victories give Republicans even more momentum going into next year’s presidential elections? What does this mean for Democrats? More analysis on that later day, for now, here is a brief synopsis of the news coming out of both Nevada and New York.

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From New York (Wall Street Journal):

Democrats suffered an embarrassing setback Tuesday in a congressional election in New York City, where voters in a district they had held for nearly a century elected a Republican who framed his candidacy as a rebuke to President Barack Obama.

The GOP candidate, Bob Turner, was declared the winner Tuesday night over Democrat David Weprin in an out-of-season contest to succeed Rep. Anthony Weiner, who resigned following a scandal over sexually charged messages he sent to women he met online.

With almost all of the election districts reporting, Mr. Turner had 54% of the vote to Mr. Weprin’s 46% in the 9th congressional district that includes parts of Queens and Brooklyn.

A former television executive with no political experience, Mr. Turner had sought to make the race a referendum on Mr. Obama’s record, and it propelled him to victory in a district where Democrats outnumber Republicans 3-to-1.

In Nevada (From RGJ.com):

Republican Mark Amodei, a former state GOP chairman and state senator, easily defeated Democratic state Treasurer Kate Marshall on Tuesday to become the U.S. representative for most of Nevada, including Washoe County.

“I’m looking forward to going back and getting to work right away … and getting that message delivered and turning that tide,” Amodei said during a victory speech before more than 250 supporters at a Reno casino.

Marshall called Amodei about 9 p.m., with about 42 percent of the vote counted, to concede the U.S. House District 2 race to her Republican foe. A Democrat has never won the 2nd District since it was created after the 1980 census.