Jim Walsh, the long-term Republican incumbent from NY-25, is
very mad at the voters for nearly removing him from office:
Rep. Jim Walsh was smiling Friday, hours after accepting Democratic challenger Dan Maffei's surrender in the 25th Congressional District race.
But the narrowest victory in Walsh's 18-year House career didn't leave the incumbent as happy as some might think.
In January, he'll return to Congress as a survivor, former appropriations committee powerhouse fighting for influence in a body where the GOP will be in the Õ7WalshÕ minority for the first time in more than a decade. And he'll go there knowing that his hometown - the city where his dad was mayor and where he served as president of the Common Council - voted against him.
"I was very disappointed in the people of the city," Walsh said. "I've worked harder in the city of Syracuse than I have in any other part of the district. I have given my heart and soul to that city. And I'll continue to do that, but I've got a little hole in my heart."
How dare the plebs vote for anyone but the local lord, whose seat was handed down to him by his father since time immemorial? I mean, Syracuse is a thriving city, that has consistently been lavished with benefits from our various Republican masters in Albany and Washington, D.C. Of course the elected representative should be mad at the voters, rather than the other way around. Worst. Victory. Speech. Ever.
This must be what happens to members of congress who are only seriously challenged once every decade or so. They feel it is the responsibility of voters to support them, rather than the other way around. See Lieberman, Joe for another case study in this sort of attitude. How dare the people who actually vote have a differing opinion on a given war than the DLC wonks at my cocktail party!
Walsh only defeated Dan Maffei in this district by about 1,000 votes, even though Maffei received virtually no support from either the national party or, for that matter, from the netroots. This is one
we alllet slip through our fingers. However, after the November 7th slaughter of the Republican moderates, the NY-25 is now the fifth most Democratic district in the nation held by a Republican, with a partisan voting index of Democratic +3.4. Combine this with Walsh's condescending, aristocratic attitude toward the voters, and the NY-25 has the makings of one of our best pickups opportunities in 2008. If Walsh can only squeeze out a 1,000 vote victory without being targeted either by the netroots or by the DCCC, then he is in a lot of trouble in 2008. Given that this is my hometown district, I can't wait to help to the presumptive Democratic nominee as much as possible. And this time, I mean a lot more than moral support and the occasional canvassing trip Upstate.
