Enough said:

Murphy to congress after month-long delay

By ANDREW J. BERNSTEIN

The Saratogian

ALBANY — Democrat Scott Murphy is now Congressman-elect Murphy after Republican Jim Tedisco conceded the race for the 20th Congressional District Friday.

Murphy and supporters are expected to celebrate the victory at an event in Glens Falls Saturday.

Murphy, venture-capitalist from Glens Falls, will take the seat vacated by Kirsten Gillibrand, when Governor David Paterson named her to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat.

“I am honored and humbled to be going to Washington to represent the families of New York’s 20th Congressional District,” said Congressman-elect Murphy in a prepared release. “I am honored and humbled to be going to Washington to represent the families of New York’s 20th Congressional District.”

The victory announcement came after Tedisco’s concession call.

“I thank Assemblyman Jim Tedisco for his kind words today. It was an honor to compete with him in this hard-fought campaign. I look forward to working with him to move Upstate in the right direction,” Murphy said.

Murphy will now serve for the remainder of Gillibrand’s term, which runs until January 2011.

“Earlier today, I called and congratulated Scott Murphy on a hard-fought contest and wished him well as the next congressman of the 20th congressional district,” said Tedisco in a prepared release. “This was a closely contested election that perhaps lasted a little longer than anyone may have expected or wanted. But it was important for our electoral process and for hard-working people of Upstate New York that it be resolved fairly and decisively.”

Gillibrand, who supported Murphy on the campaign trail and endorsed him in a TV ad, was the first national politician to offer congratulations.

“This campaign was about who would work with President Obama to get the economy turned around and the voters have made the right choice,” she said. “I was proud to give Scott Murphy my full support in his campaign for Congress. Having spent so much time campaigning alongside Scott these past several weeks, I know Scott will be the kind of hard-working and effective leader New Yorkers in the 20th District will be proud of.”

On Friday, the New York State Board of Elections showed Murphy leading Tedisco by a 399-vote margin, which was called an unrecoverable margin by some pundits.

The tally, with results still unofficial on Friday, showed Murphy with 80,420 votes, to Tedisco’s 80,021.

Since the March 31 special election, the race has been to close to call, with the candidates swapping leads in early re-counts. At one point, each had exactly the same number of votes.

However, once absentee ballots began to be counted, Murphy’s lead steadily — albeit — slowly increased until today’s concession.

Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House of Representatives also issued a congratulatory statement Friday afternoon:

“As Speaker of the House, I congratulate Congressman-elect Scott Murphy on his impressive victory in the race for New York’s 20th Congressional District. Scott’s victory is a clear indication that Democrats, Independents, and Republicans across the country want to continue moving America in a New Direction and reject the ‘just say no’ policies of Washington, D.C. Republicans,” she said.

Chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee Pete Sessions, who had declared the race a national priority, said the party would have work to do ahead of the 2010 elections.

“After a long, hard-fought race, the final result of the New York special election reinforces what our party has known since November — we have our work cut out for us when it comes to winning in Democratic-held district,” he said in a press release.

The election saw higher-than-normal turnout for a special election, with 160,441 voters casing ballots.

Turnout may have been driven, in part, by a negative campaign driven by national political organizations, with both Tedisco and Murphy attacking each other over the airwaves.

The 20th Congressional District extends from the Hudson River Valley to the Lake Champlain region, encompassing ten, largely rural, counties. Gillibrand was first elected to the district in 2006 and was re-elected in 2008.

Tedisco, who served as the Minority Leader in the State Assembly until resigning his post earlier this month, will now serve the remaining two years of the his Assembly term. He has represented the 110th State Assembly District for 27 years.

Reach Andrew J. Bernstein at abernstein@saratogian.com or 518-583-8729 ext. 219.