Monday, May 23, 2011

In shocking news, Republicans caught playing dirty tricks

Have you been paying attention to the special election to be held Tue 24 May for the House seat in NY-26? (This is the seat that opened up after second-term Republican Chris "the Craigslist Congressman" Lee resigned this past February.) As you may know, this election has become of national interest due to its status as a referendum of sorts on the GOP's near-unanimous support for the Ryan plan to destroy Medicare, and the consequent panic by senior Republicans from Boehner to Rove as their erstwhile safe seat now appears to be winnable by the Democrat, Kathy Hochul.

There's a longish article in the NYT about this race, which fans of inside baseball might enjoy. Here's a particularly delicious nugget:

And like Republican leaders in Washington, Ms. Corwin has found it difficult to grapple with the Tea Party movement, as she tries to fend off the aggressive candidacy of Jack Davis, who is running on the Tea Party line after failing to win the Republican nomination.

Concerned that Mr. Davis was draining support from Ms. Corwin, Republicans produced a wave of attacks on him, including circulating a much-publicized video that party operatives said showed Mr. Davis assaulting a young Republican volunteer who was tracking him with a camera.

But the attacks backfired after it was disclosed that the volunteer was Ms. Corwin’s chief of staff, a development that led the Davis camp to claim that Mr. Davis had been set up. Ms. Corwin was then barraged with questions from local reporters about her role in the episode.

Another interesting wrinkle: both Marco Rubio and Allen West have recorded phone messages urging support for the Republican candidate, not the Tea Party candidate. You'll recall that both Rubio and West were favorites of the teabaggers way back in 2010. I wonder if there will be any backlash for either of them.

P.S. Don't forget to visit JaneCorwin.org!

(x-posted)

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