The ridiculously close vote margin between Jim Tedisco and Scott Murphy is the big story coming from upstate New York but there are many interesting side stories to the race. One of those is Tedisco's ouster as Assembly Minority Leader. Members of his caucus wanted him out of there for making them look so bad in his campaign. So to counter them, he's simply stepping down as to make himself look confident in his race with Murphy.
From The Saratogian:
"I’ll continue to serve and will be in the leadership role until Monday, when there will be a vote for new leadership. Then I’ll be working on my transition and serving my Assembly district for the next few weeks," Tedisco said. "Then I believe we’ll be off to Congress."Though of course his suggestion could carry less weight than the other members.
Tedisco has served in the Assembly since 1982 and was first elected leader in November 2005 by a unanimous vote. He has twice been re-elected to the post.
He said he would suggest a choice for the next Assembly minority leader but that his opinion would not have any more weight than that of any other member.
Tedisco simply saw the blood in the water and now he's stepping down so he doesn't have to be shamed with being kicked out with a vote amongst his fellow Republican Assembly members. The fact is that Tedisco ran a terrible campaign against Murphy and the slime managed to spread to his caucus. For that he blew a twenty point lead in six weeks and now might just end up as a regular Assemblymember because of it, while Scott Murphy goes to Congress.
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