Have to hand it to Jimmy Disco. All it takes is two former NRCC chairs and a couple of prominent New York GOP politicians saying he's lost the race, and he starts to think maybe he's lost the race.
A GOP source on Capitol Hill said Thursday afternoon that Republican Jim Tedisco’s camp has abandoned hope of winning New York’s 20th district special election but that the former state Assembly Minority Leader won’t concede the race to Democrat Scott Murphy until technical legal questions surrounding voter residency issues are resolved.
The source said that Tedisco believes the residency issues that came up during absentee vote counting after the March 31 contest could have a bearing on future races in New York. As such, the source said, Tedisco wants to see those issues resolved before ending the legal battle.
Ahh, yes. Residency issues. Not the issue where Tedisco's not a resident of NY-20. Nope, Jim Tedisco's big worry is about people who have second homes. Like Sam Seder, who tweeted yesterday:
NY20th race Tedisco challenged my absentee ballot. 4 days before the election I was jury foreman for a trial in NY20th. Challenge Fail.
Oh, sure, he was a jury foreman. But then he voted absentee. That must be proof he doesn't live there!
TPMDC 'splains how it works:
The jury had served on March 26 and March 27, and Election Day was March 31. Since this past October, Sam has maintained a second place in New York City for his radio job, and voted absentee because he would be at work on Election Day. Other than the need to be in New York City for work, he has been living full-time in Columbia County.
In fact, I was able to confirm with Columbia County Democratic election commissioner Virginia Martin that Sam's ballot has indeed been challenged by the Tedisco campaign -- on the grounds that he does not legitimately live in the district. Martin overruled the challenge, while the Republican deputy commissioner sustained it, keeping the vote out of the count until further notice.
Tedisco may not be going the whole Coleman, but he's been darn creative with the vote suppression on his way down.