President Obama’s first White House foray into candidate endorsements was in doubt last night, with the special election to fill Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s upstate congressional seat too close to call.
Fewer than 70 votes separated the Democrat and Republican.
With 100 percent of precincts reporting, Democrat Scott Murphy — for whom Obama appeared in a mailing and whose candidacy was framed as an extension of the Democrats’ national message — was leading Republican Jim Tedisco by a mere 65 votes out of 144,625 cast.
Republicans have filed a lawsuit requiring all paper ballots be impounded, the first step in what’s expected to be a protracted process.
“For everyone who doesn’t want to believe that every vote counts, here’s your answer,” said Siena College polling spokesman Steve Greenberg, one of several political experts who invoked the Florida 2000 presidential recount.
“Now it’ll come down to who did a better job of [getting] military voters, senior citizens” and others who vote by absentee ballot, said GOP strategist Tom Doherty, of Mercury LLC.
Roughly 10,000 paper ballots were issued, and the deadline for returning them all is April 13.
The race to replace Gillibrand was costly and nasty.
It became framed as a referendum on Obama’s popularity and his economic-stimulus package, while national Republicans tried to seize on the election as a potential proving ground for rebuilding a badly damaged party.