Not since 1922, when two-term Rep. Lester Volk (R.-N.Y.) was defeated for reelection by Democrat Emanuel Celler (who rose to become chairman of the Judiciary Committee during his next half-century in the House), has New York's 9th District had a Republican U.S. representative. That, of course, changed Tuesday when conservative GOPer Bob Turner became an overnight political superstar by winning the nationally watched special election in NY-9.
Final results were even more sensational than the early returns, which simply showed Turner edging out Democratic State Assemblyman David Weprin. In the end, the 70-year-old Republican demolished Weprin by a margin of 54% to 46% in the Queens-Brooklyn district.
Much has been written about the impact of Turner's triumph in national politics. Less has been written about Turner himself, a retired television executive who has never held office before, although he did carry the Republican and Conservative standards against then-Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner last year. Variously described as a "regular guy" and "not a politician," the newest congressman and father of five stands in marked contrast to the Republican nominees in all three special U.S. House races in New York that have occurred since Barack Obama became President.
All three Republican nominees were longtime state legislators with records that were fair game for Democratic opponents with slimmer political resumes to attack.
And all three Republicans lost.
In March of 2009, State Assembly Republican Leader Jim Tedisco lost a tight contest to fill the open 20th District House seat to Democrat Scott Murphy, venture capitalist and first-time candidate. In November of that year, liberal GOP Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava came in third in the special election for the vacant NY-23 district won by Democrat Bill Owen, businessman, U.S. Air Force veteran and first-time candidate. Placing a very close second was insurance man and Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman, to whom many Republicans turned in disappointment with Scozzafava's liberal voting record.
In May of this year, State Assemblywoman and Republican Jane Corwin lost the special election in New York's 26th District to Democrat Kathy Hochul, who was well-known as Erie County clerk but not in an office where she could compile a controversial record on issues.
You get the picture. Turner was less like the familiar office-holders who were Republican nominees in the last three special House elections in New York and more like the Democrats who won by being political outsiders. Similar "outsider" candidates won in four of the six U.S. House Districts that Republicans picked up from Democrats in 2010: nurse Ann Marie Buerkle (Syracuse), former FBI agent Michael Grimm (Staten Island), U.S. Army veteran Chris Gibson (who ousted Murphy in the 23rd District), and physician Nan Hayworth (Westchester County), all of whom are freshman Republican U.S. representatives today.
As the New York Republican Party prepares for a chairmanship battle later this month between incumbent Chairman Ed Cox and Chautauqua County Executive Greg Edwards, it might be wise for those electing the party chairman to ask who would work the hardest at recruiting future candidates cut from the cloth of Bob Turner—or, as they were dubbed by Ronald Reagan, "citizen politicians."
