(From the diaries. I don't think I've ever seen anything this insane -- kos)
Just when you thought the Tedisco campaign's tactics couldn't get any more absurd here in the 20th Congressional District, they just became utterly ridiculous.
According to late Thursday night report in the Hudson Register-Star, the Tedisco legal team filed suit in Dutchess County court demanding to be declared the winner in the special election race with Scott Murphy.
Yup, you heard that right.
Tedisco's down by 178 votes, according to the official New York State Board of Elections tally. Yet he's asking a judge to declare him the winner.
Come again?
Even though he's falling farther and farther behind as the count reaches its final stages (before a court rules on challenged ballots), and even though the vast majority of ballots yet to be opened are Democrats challenged by Tedisco...
Here's the front page headline and lede in Friday's Register-Star:
http://www.registerstar.com/...
Tedisco asks to be declared winner
Murphy still holds lead
By Jamie Larson
COLUMBIA COUNTY — 20th Congressional District candidate Republican Jim Tedisco submitted a petition to the Dutchess County Supreme Court Thursday asking the judge to declare him the winner of the extremely close special election race, despite the numbers currently being in favor of his opponent, Democrat Scott Murphy.
According to The Associated Press, Murphy leads Tedisco by 178 votes district wide — 79,452 to 79,274. The only ballots that have not been counted are those challenged by each candidate’s lawyers, and while Tedisco’s office has said the challenges are roughly evenly split between the two camps, Columbia County lawyers for Murphy have only challenged 22 ballots, while Tedisco’s have challenged 258.
Yes, folks, we have officially entered Bizarroland in the 20th CD, with the GOP candidate arguing that (as the guy whose lead has evaporated, from a high of up 25 votes on Election Night to a deficit of down 178 votes today) he should be declared the winner by a hand-picked judge.
Despite the fact that he's losing.
The Register-Star also notes that:
Tedisco is also asking the court to authorize recanvasing of all machine ballots to acquire the “proper” tallies. He would like them to reassess the validity of absentee votes already counted, and keep ballots challenged by Tedisco unopened. County Board of Elections Democratic Commissioner Virginia Martin said this new development could result in the election taking quite a bit more time to be decided. She would not venture a guess on how long it will be before the 20th District has a representative in congress.
I didn't think it could get worse than Tedisco's lawyer and a GOP election commissioner stalling the vote count by going to the first regular-season game at the new Yankee Stadium instead of showing up to count votes.
But this is beyond laughable. It's loony-tunes. Frankly, I'm speechless.
