Gut check for North Country Democrats?

The Watertown Daily Times is reporting that Republicans are spending big in an effort to unseat freshman Senator Darrel Aubertine.

“Senate Republicans have dropped $710,902 in the last 100 days to reclaim a north country seat that was theirs for more than a century,” writes Jude Seymour, “outpacing their Democratic counterparts in contributions by more than 8 to 1.”

The Aubertine race comes at a time when Democrats have staged something of a revolution in the North Country.

Aubertine’s special election victory last winter was historic, as was Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand’s win in the 20th congressional district in 2006.

Were those elections part of a trend — echoing the decline of the GOP around New York state — or were they aberrations?

Republicans are clearly fighting hard to prove that it was a one-off glitch and that the North Country remains solid conservative territory.

We’ll have a much clearer picture on November 5th.