Newly elected Republican Bob Turner, right, stands beside RNC Chairman Reince Priebus at a press conference after winning former Congressman Anthony Weiner’s (D) house seat in a special election, Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2011, in the Manhattan borough of New York. The novice politician and retired broadcasting executive billed his win in a heavily democratic district as a warning to President Obama and his 2012 re-election bid.By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent
WASHINGTON – Savoring the unlikeliest of victories, Republicans called their triumph in a New York City congressional race a repudiation of President Barack Obama’s policies on the economy and Israel on Wednesday as public and private polls showed his approval ratings plummeting in a district he carried handily in 2008.
“We’re not going to sugarcoat it, it was a tough loss,” conceded the House Democratic Campaign Committee. Yet party officials and the White House insisted the race was not a referendum on the president as he seeks re-election with the economy stagnant and unemployment stuck at 9.1 percent.
In New York, Rep.-elect Bob Turner, outpolled state Assemblyman David Weprin in a light-turnout election. He will replace former Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner, who resigned in disgrace earlier this year in a sexting scandal. Represented by Democrats since the 1920s, the district includes portions of Brooklyn and Queens, is home to three times as many registered Democrats as Republicans and is nearly 40 percent Jewish.
Those district demographics customarily spell victory for a Democrat, but in a smattering of interviews on the day after the election, former Obama supporters gave voice to their changed feelings.