A new Blue Dog to replace Kirsten Gillibrand in NY-20?

Scott MURPHY for Congress from Elizabeth Benjamin on Vimeo

by Ken

Thanks to our colleaague Phillip Anderson of The Albany Project for calling attention to a post on the blog of New York Daily News political reporter Elizabeth Benjamin, "Scott Murphy's Challenge," in which she notes about the Democratic challenger in the March 31 special congressional election in NY-20 to replace now-Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand:

"Murphy also said he plans to be a Blue Dog, just like Gillibrand when she represented the 20th, and has already applied for membership to the caucus."

Benjamin, reporting on "an event in Albany this weekend at which he was formally endorsed by Gillibrand and another local pol, freshman Rep. Paul Tonko," notes that Senator Gillibrand --

heaped praise on Murphy at Saturday's event, saying his experience as a venture capitalist (or in her words, "entrepreneur") makes him uniquely qualified to be a congressman at a time when the economy is tanking.

She also noted that he married into a Washington County dairy family and knows how to milk a cow, which "matters in this district, matters in upstate New York."

Murphy is taking his cues from Gillibrand and hewing closely to her pre-Senate ideology on hot-button issues like gun control. He called himself a "strong supporter of the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms," adding that while he agrees it's crucial to keep guns out of the hands of children and the mentally ill, "we also need to respect the rights of law-abiding citizens."

If that's the bad news, then the also-bad (or maybe not-so-bad, depending on how you look at it) news is that Murphy doesn't seem to stand too terribly much of a chance.

He's largely unknown in the 20th CD, particularly compared to his GOP opponent, Assembly Minority Leader Jim Tedisco, who has served for more than two decades in the Legislature, and the accelerated special election timetable makes raising his name recognition that much harder.

(You can see from the video below [the one I've posted it at the top of this post] that even seasoned Democrats have a bit of trouble recalling Murphy's surname from time to time).

For the record, The Albany Project's devtob offers a more glass-half-full view of the event, and in general of "the excellent Scott Murphy" -- there is, after all, plenty to dislike about GOP candidate Tedisco.

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