Governor David Paterson is pissed that Iowa and Vermont look more progressive than New York, so he is fixin’ to change that by introducing an exciting and controversial gay marriage bill to the surprisingly conservative New York State Assembly. It is much like the exciting and controversial gay marriage bill that Governor Eliot Spitzer introduced a year before he had to leave office for having adulterous heterosexual sex with a female hooker. What incipient scandal awaits Governor Paterson? [City Room Blog]

Once upon a time, a Democrat and a Republican vied for the seat in the House of Representatives newly vacated by a gun-totin’ conservodem who turned into Senator Hillary Clinton. The individual contenders in this race did not matter so much, because national Democrats and Republicans got involved and suddenly it was a REFERENDUM ON CHANGE. Who would emerge the biggest loser, President Obama or RNC Chairman Michael Steele? MORE »

Eliot Spitzer was on the Today show this morning to chat with Matt Lauer about that time the latter fought a deer with his bike, and lost. Now look, jokes about how Eliot Spitzer made it with all the ladies are not funny anymore, at all (although it is funny in this interview when Matt Lauer basically asks Spitzer how many hookers he’s sexed, specifically). Spitzer is smart and goddamnit he should have another job! He should still be running New York! Total FBI-Wall Street conspiracy set-up with this guy, maybe. [MSNBC/Salon]

Former Congressman John “Slappy” Sweeney of the famous New York 20th District, who lost his seat in 2006 after beating up his wife and getting wasted at frat parties, got another god damn DWI over the weekend, his second in eighteen months. It is not clear whether he had a local broad on his lap — as he did the last time, when he was pulled over for nearly crashing into a police car. We await more DETAILS. [Times Union]

New York Republican Jim Tedisco is currently up by twelve (12) votes in his special election against Democrat Scott Murphy in the state’s 20th congressional district. And those 6,000 absentee ballots haven’t been counted, because why rush, right? So he’s leaving his state assembly leadership post, and just cold gettin’ ready. [The Hill]

That Tedisco-Murphy special election sure was exciting. Nobody won, officially, yet, although Democrat Scott Murphy has a small but solid non-Lizard People lead. But there are MILITARY absentee ballots still being counted, and regular absentee ballots, 4% still uncounted, in all — so who knows, right? The only real drama was “When will Michael Steele come out and try to desperately spin this in favor, so the Confederacy doesn’t make him vanish? MORE »

Wow, how much did we not want to see this result from New York’s Congressional District 20 special election. Neck and neck! Dead Heat! Photo Finish! Etc. You goddamned people, can’t we just have an easy election, it’s over, Michael Steele is fired — he gets fired either way, hah! — and then we, uhm, move on to 2010/2012? MORE »

Today we celebrate a BELLWETHER ELECTION up in New York’s 20th Congressional District. Once a harmless gun nut named Kirsten Gillibrand held that seat, but then she became the poor man’s Hillary Clinton, so the voters in her district must now decide whether they will be led by a human named “Murphy” or a human named “Tedisco,” allegedly. MORE »

Miss the excitement of 2008? Well, it is not coming back. Instead, tomorrow, there will be a Special Election in some obscure upstate New York congressional district, between people named “Republican Jim Tedisco” and “Democrat Scott Murphy.” Are you feeling some HOPE twitch in your pants? Yes you can! Who will win?! MORE »

“September 11, 2001,” this infamous NRCC ad displays immediately. “It was a national tragedy.” And then, of course, it proceeds to exploit that fact for political gain in the New York 20th District, where Democrat Scott Murphy and Republican Jim Tedisco are fighting for Sen. Kirsten “Caroline Kennedy” Gillibrand’s old House seat, with a special election to be held on Tuesday. Ha ha, look at all the terrorists, they are very scary, and brown, and this liberal Murphy guy loves them and 9/11 so much that he won’t even compromise his opposition to capital punishment for well-known cases. [YouTube]

There’s a very important GOP-RNC renewal campaign happening right now in New York State. This one Republican guy, Jim Tedisco, is fighting Democrat Scott Murphy for Kirsten Gillibrand’s seat, because she’s now Hillary Clinton. Exciting! So exciting, in fact, that a whole lot of wingnuts have taken over Tedisco’s campaign. And if you listen to this audio, you can hear how the National Republican Trust PAC is making so many friends in Albany. WHERE IS JIM TEDISCO’S BIRTH CERTIFICATE HE SOUNDS LIKE COMMUNIST CHINESE. [Albany Times Union]