For Tedisco, it’s tough being Republican

If nothing else, this race highlights the brand damage done to the GOP over the last eight years. NY’s 20th has a 70,000 voter Republican advantage, in terms of registration.

You can’t win this district without Republican voters. So the GOP fields a respected, fairly moderate, scandal-free guy, one of the best players on their bench — and still he’s tangled up with an unknown neophyte named Scott Murphy.

(One of my editors at NPR asked last night, “Is he REALLY unknown?” I said, “I’ve lived here for ten years and I’ve never heard of him and it’s my job to hear about people…”)

So let’s be plain: If the Republican movement is healthy, there’s no race here. Murphy probably doesn’t even run. But we’re a long way from that.

Murphy was able to climb onto Barack Obama’s coattails and race to the front, closing a 20-plus point gap in a matter of weeks.

Will the zeitgeist change if Team Obama’s stimulus plan tanks? Sure. But the GOP has to start planning their own revival and not just wait around for the Dems to hit a brick wall.