After a long night of being too-close-to-call, the NY-23 election has ended with Democrat Bill Owens’s victory over Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman, according to MSNBC and the AP. With 88 percent of the precincts reporting and Owens leading 49 percent to 46 percent, Hoffman conceded. Republican Dede Scozzafava, who dropped out of the race last weekend and endorsed Owens, had six percent of the vote.
Watertown, New York Mayor Jeff Graham, a Hoffman supporter, attributed the loss partially to Scozzafava’s endorsement. “We lost,” he said. “The Scozzafava endorsement, the [Watertown Daily Times] endorsement of Owens — I mean, they roughed Hoffman up.”
Democrat wins House seat in heavily GOP area in NY [AP]
Update 1:00: Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo is having a hard time finding a silver lining for Democrats:
