Tedisco, Murphy race too close to call

In a race that was supposed to be decided Tuesday night, the vote count is much too close to call. Democratic candidate Scott Murphy has the edge of a mere 59 votes over Republican candidate Jim Tedisco.  Given that the total vote count is 154,629, the razor thin margin just 0.03% of all votes.

Although the 20th Congressional District has been solidly Republican in recent years, the changing fortunes of the Republican party meant that Murphy, a venture capitalist with no experience in politics, has a solid chance of snatching the election from his opponent.

In all likelihood, absentee ballots will now decide the race, but as of Wednesday none of them have been counted.  It is said that 10,000 of the absentee ballots were sent out, and of those, 6000 have been returned.  These remaining ballots are expected to be counted by April 13th.

The New York Times reports that both candidates have spent heavy sums of money in this election.

Tags: Murphy, Tedisco

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 1st, 2009 at 8:56 pm and is filed under Elections. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.