Visual source: Newseum
NY Times:
Democrat Wins G.O.P. Seat; Rebuke Seen to Medicare Plan
Kathy Hochul’s victory in a conservative New York district deals a blow to the national Republican Party in a race that largely turned on the party’s plan to overhaul Medicare.
ABC:
In what can be taken as the first referendum on the House Republican budget authored by Rep. Paul Ryan, Democrat Kathy Hochul picked up a Republican seat in western New York thanks in part to her ability to attach GOP candidate Jane Corwin to the budget's restructuring of Medicare.
EJ Dionne:
Hochul getting this close to half the vote is astonishing in a district where in 2010 the Democratic candidate got just 26 percent of the vote. Even in the very good Democratic year of 2008, the Democratic nominee got just 40.5 percent. To get a sense of how this result might extrapolate elsewhere, look at very Republican Wyoming County. Hochul lost it, as President Obama did in 2008. But Hochul matched Obama’s 36 percent share of the vote. If every Democratic House candidate in 2012 could reach Obama’s 2008 vote share, Democrats would be back in control by a substantial margin.
WaPo:
Erie County Clerk Kathy Hochul won a House special election in western New York on Tuesday night, a Democratic triumph in a conservative district that many consider a referendum on House Republicans’ efforts to reform Medicare...
Corwin’s struggles in what has long been a GOP district may provide a chilling effect for Republicans who were already hesitant to embrace the entitlement reform.
In New York, Democrats ran ads about the issue early and often, seeking to overcome a significant registration disadvantage in the Buffalo-area district. In the end, that strategy appeared to have worked.
Politico:
Democrat Kathy Hochul has defeated Republican Jane Corwin in a western New York special election in a race that emerged as a political testing ground for the ambitious GOP blueprint to reform Medicare.
Fueled by a late wave of commercials blasting Corwin over her support for the controversial House Republican budget plan, Hochul surged in a race that few initially expected her to prevail in.
Christopher Hahn:
This is an absolute rejection of Paul Ryan's budget plan and the GOP's overreach since taking the House. The Ryan Plan will go nowhere and members who voted for it are in jeopardy, especially freshmen.
Tuesday's results will send shock waves in Washington. Ryan's Purina Plan is dead. The only remaining question is will any GOP senator facing re-election next year support it? I can't wait to see.
To be clear, Western New York might as well be West Texas. The voters in this very red district told the GOP that their plans don't work for them. I am looking forward to parsing the numbers in this race. Clearly Republicans crossed party lines to support Hochul.
Georges C. Benjamin:
It is now clear that health has taken its appropriate place as a focus for the concerns of Americans. While some may believe that it is only about Medicare - it is not - It is really about health and financial security. Medicare provides this for millions of elderly and disabled people. Medicaid is just as important to those that are low income, the disabled and anyone requiring long term care.
Efforts by some to undermine Medicaid will also have to justify why they want to pull the rug out from under beneficiaries. Quality, affordable health care will be a political issue this election cycle. Those that are for it will do better than those that are not.
Paul Waldman:
It doesn't seem to have been polled in a while, but back in 2009 the auto bailout was extremely unpopular. But it's hard to imagine that Republicans are going to want to talk much about how they preferred to see Chrysler and GM liquidated. Nevertheless, if you forced them to, I'm sure they could come up with reasons why the turnaround in the industry proves nothing, and the bailout was still a bad idea.