Tedisco optimistic of victory

March 31, 2009

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — In front of a crowd of hundreds of cheering supporters, James Tedisco said  he will ultimately prevail against Democrat Scott Murphy in the too-close-to-call New York special election.

With all precincts reporting, Murphy leads Tedisco by 65 votes but there are as many as 10,000 absentee ballots that have not been counted which will ultimately decide this election.

“I believe when the smoke clears we will have won a tremendous victory,” Tedisco said. “I know you all are ready to celebrate, but we’ll have to wait a little longer,”

Tedisco’s chief of staff Bill Sherman said the campaign is confident it will regain the lead when all the absentee ballots are tallied — because registered Republicans have cast a plurality of the absentee ballots. (That’s not too telling, though, in a district with a significant GOP registration advantage.)

Tedisco thanked many leading Republican officials, including newly-minted RNC chairman Michael Steele, NRCC chairman Pete Sessions and freshman 27-year-old congressman Aaron Schock, who visited the district to campaign with Tedisco.

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