Kathy Hochul Defeats Jane Corwin in NY26 Special Election

Another career democrat politician taking the reins to raise taxes and user fees while talking out of both sides of her horse mouth. I don't think Jack and Jane were any better choices but at least they would bring something different to the table in WNY. Well the good news is that we've undone some of the damage the teabaggers caused in the 2010 midterm elections and maybe now we'll have someone remove all the excessive fees that Kathy Hochul attached to every permit and license in Erie County. She'll probably be better than Jack and Jane but I will have to see if she is better than Chris the muscle man Lee.

I sometimes wonder if WNY will ever see that electing the same idiots to office will give them the same results.

Best news in a long time, the whole country was watching this one and hopefully will follow.

I really want to see her end foreign aide to Pakistan. I will change my mind on her if she can get that accomplished as soon as she gets into office like she said she would do in her commercials.

Every time I step into a DMV office lately I can't help but be impressed by how efficient and easy it is (and on-line is even better), and what a drastic improvement it is to what used to be the Soviet-like routine of standing in endless lines. Dunno if that was her doing, but it seems to be on her watch (either her or her Dem predecessor).

I'm psyched about this upset, though. I despise the Republican's refusal to raise tax rates on the top end of the income spectrum and their insistance on privatization of health care and their out of control military spending, not to mention their social agenda. Obama's got the backbone of a jellyfish way too often (see: public option, tax cut extensions, Guantanamo . . .) After promising big change he turns out to be Mr. Incremental. But this election has to send shivers down GOP spines while putting some real wind in the sails of Congressional Dems. Hopefully they show a little more spine than Obama.

Haven't we all learned our lesson about politicians by now. A whole lot of talk..... I'll be surprised if one thing in this area or this nation changes because of this election. And btw what is "essentially" ending medicare? How is that a phrase that wins an election? Tocqueville was right.

This seat is going to get redistricted out of existence next year.

It is great to see democracy in action and while this site bleeds leftist blood and thus....

Good job Rep. Hochul. You ran a fair and honest election without the support of state or federal party officials on the democratic ticket, which left you out to pasture. You deserve applause for your brevity and ability to raise funds, launch and sustain a credible campaign, and finish off a target that imploded because of others and not herself.

Although I’m not a donkey, I respect the win and am proud you will support us going forward. I hope you keep your independent streak alive.

Tonight, be proud to be participating in the 26th Congressional District race.
It was the moment that REPUBLICANS voted for a "Liberal".
In trying to regroup, the GOP will splinter from the Koch Brothers.
Democrats got their bumper sticker mantra: Medicare
Congress have to debate whether to tax oil companies or cut Defense spending.

It is an important a shot heard round the nation.

cool sound effects bro!

paul ryan just morphed into bobby jindal 2011.

It's not my district, but I'm glad for Kathy. She seems like a smart, nice person who has done & wants to continue doing a great job.

She is probably the best of the three candidates in the running and won't butt heads with Higgins and Slaughter, so we may get a lot for the entire Western New York region out of the deal.

I agree with Bini, she did a great job of fixing the issues at the DMV.

Corwin wanted it both ways....Have Boehner come here for support, embrace Ryan's budget plan, i.e. lower tax rates for the wealthy from 35% to 25% and make medicare into a voucher program, then deny she's destroying medicare.

I don't know how this translates into being a congressperson, but it can't be denied that Hochul has done an incredible job of improving the DMV. What used to be the poster child for horrible civil servants is now an effecient well run customer friendly department. She put "service" back into the term civil service.

I remember Louise Slaughter running in the 1970s on a two-term limit platform - what a joke!

just another tax and spend liberal who will drain erie county and the city of buffalo til there's noone left...same voters, same dems, same mass exodus. last one out turn off the lights and kiss Urkel

saltecks, suck my chocolate salty balls chef

Lesser of three evils. She had my vote because I disliked her the least of the three. I hope she outperforms my low expectations.

The fact that this came in a Republican district on the heels of the almost unanimous R vote against Medicare is critical.

I don't know how much we can read into this, except perhaps that retired conservatives waver in their ideology when their Medicare checks are threatened. Corwin would have won this district (though not by a lot) if there hadn't been a split ticket with Jack Davis.

You know they're salty?

Jack ruined it for everyone

I suppose I'm glad to see a Dem winning in a historically republican area, but I have to agree with those that are saying this congressional seat will be non-existant after the redistricting.

I'm happy that they elected someone who will be looking out for the less fortunate instead of for their rich friends. We need more democrats like Kathy Hochul in office. Someone who really understands the people she has been elected to represent. Good riddance to the rich businessmen and women who want to give tax cuts to the rich while the rest of us suffer with less. Good riddance to them all.

While I'd prefer Corwin to Hochul/Pelosi, I not much disappointed about Corwin losing. She was a weak candidate with bad political skills, and her campaign team was even worse.

There are silver linings. Even though the district won't exist, I'll predict redrawn boundaries will put Hochul's new Amherst area residence into Louise Slaughter's district and when she retires in '12 or '14, then Hochul will have a long career in Congress in that seat.

It was inevitable a Dem would succeed Slaughter no matter what. Having it be Houchul instead of a Rochester area Dem would at least keep Hochul out of the county executive job here for a very long time. Probably the R-dominated parts of eastern Erie Co and counties to our east will get redrawn into Tom Reed's district which makes that one less likely to ever again elect an Eric Massa type Dem.

It's clear to anybody paying attention in WNY and elsewhere that the DMV experience is dramatically improved, and Hochul gets much credit.

Hochul's predecessor at the Erie Clerk's office, David Swarts, has to get much of that credit as well, particularly considering that he went from that office to head up DMV statewide under Spitzer/Paterson. By all accounts, DMV organization statewide is substantially improved over that time.

Which brings up a fundamental problem with D vs. R. Plenty of D's are feckless lifer politicians, but at least the goal is to have the trains run on time and the (necessary) work of government done well. When you get dedicated technocrats (and I mean that in a good way) in place, progress can be made, and as anybody who has to deal with DMV (everybody) can testify, it matters.

In a radical departure from decades past (when it could be said that both 'sides' at least wanted things to work well), the mainstream Republican philosophy is that government is bad; not 'doesn't work well', but is just bad. A smart, solid technocrat is simply out of line with the party, and if they have an intelligent thought in their head, they have to hide it. D's come in all stripes and levels of competence and philosophy, but at this point even the best and most dedicated R must pretend to be a right wing moron, and that's just not a good basis from which to govern.

The Hochul win is a signature moment, I'm glad WNY got to be the messenger.

according to polling data, Davis' earlier support didn't fall to Corwin when it waned; his voters broke in favor of Hochul. Therefore, if he didn't get his 9%, Hochul almost certainly would have topped 50%.

For a Republican to lose by 6% in this district is unprecedented. Bill Paxon paid lots of lobbying and campaign money to have this district's lines drawn the way they were specifically to insure heavy GOP advantage (skirting around urban cores of Rochester and Buffalo, stretching over large swaths of conservative suburbs and rural red votes in multiple and dispersed media markets). This district was tailor made for conservative victories.

And yet today Rush Limbaugh pretended to be completely unaware that a special election had taken place for a house seat. That's credible . . . yeah. I'm sure he didn't know about it. It was only front page news in the NYTimes for a week. It only had the speaker of the house and other right wing luminaries pouring money and campaign appearances into it. I'm certain Rush was completed uninformed. He'd never intentionally misinform . . .

This race's outcome needs to serve as the GOP's wake-up call as to the danger of its unyielding and recalcitrant adherence to the shredding assault on social programs (Medicare, Social Security) while preserving - and extending - the beneficial treatment of the upper tiers of the income classes in this country as well as the shameful subsidies of privileged business interests.

By all accounts, the improvement at DMV has been ongoing, and is substantial. By all means use online, but I think biniszkiewicz's experience is typical. Lesson, of course, is that government services can stink, but they can also get better.

Comparing the current DMV to NC DMV? NY is an easy winner, the NC DMV is still badly organized (though clever employees can usually figure out how to juggle the non-integrated systems needed for a simple transaction, I'll give them that).

Ideology has its place, but at the state, county and city level particularly, I'll take folks who sit down and do the hard work of making the joint run better ...