Finally, our Long Island nightmare (and our national nightmare, given that this was the last contested House race of the cycle) is over:
New York Republican Randy Altschuler has conceded to Democratic Rep. Tim Bishop, bringing the final undecided House race of the 2010 election cycle to a close.
Altschuler, a wealthy, self-funding businessman, trailed Bishop by 263 votes late Tuesday, after a Suffolk County judge sorted through 1,000 challenged ballots.
The two campaigns were scheduled to meet in court Wednesday morning to continue sorting through ballots, but with fewer than 1,000 challenged votes left to be counted, Altschuler’s campaign determined that it could not close the gap.
“After consulting with my family and campaign staff, I am ending my campaign and offering congratulations to Congressman Tim Bishop on his victory,” Altschuler said in a statement, adding that he had decided to forego a district-wide hand recount.
Altschuler could have made for a good state wide candidate with lots of financial connections. Glad the NY GOP didn’t add to the state bench.
I think Alaska Senate is the only thing left. And we progressives don’t really have a stake in that one. (although, on a personal note, I loathe Joe Miller and would much rather see Murkowski in there).
It’s about time. I’ve always been a fan of Rep. Bishop and am glad that he pulled this one off – but by the slimmest of margins.
Now if they could only make his district safer – can they do that?
Bishop’s been my Congressman as long as I’ve been aware politics existed. He was heavily outraised and outspent by Altschuler (a very rich dude) and still pulled it out in just about the worst political environment known to Democrats. The district is historically conservative and has a dead even PVI, but I like to think this is evidence it’s finally starting to tilt toward Democrats. I just hope this race doesn’t scare Bishop into retirement. He’s a good public servant and, if he can survive this year, he can survive anything.
Everyone here knows that i like moderates (may be even more – Republican moderates, because they are much greater “rarities” these days), but Altschuler is, certainly, not one of them. Would he be a “Fred Thiele-type” Republican – i would have difficult time whom to root for, but as it is – it was no brainer..
“Bishop got lucky and only by a handful of questionable votes.”
Seriously, why has no one typed this yet?
So what was the final count for the House? How many seats did the Republicans flip and how many did the Democrats flip?