A few days ago someone asked what Massa was doing spending so much time in the Souther Tier in the last few days of the campaign. Last night, the the answer to that question became clear: He was winning the election.
In 2006, Kuhl won every Southern Tier county. This year, Massa won all the Southern Tier but Yates, Steuben and Schuyler. His margin of victory in Monroe was about the same as in '06, and he once again narrowly lost Ontario. Without the boost from those Tier counties, Randy Kuhl would have been re-elected.
Most of those counties are heavily Republican, so it's likely that Massa's margin of victory came not only from independent voters, but also from Republicans who were sending their party a message. It's also clear evidence that Massa's four years of appearances at Rotary meetings, union halls and town celebrations made a difference.
Comments
Our Yates County vote, alone, is remarkable. I mean, that Randy, our Keuka Lake neighbor for years and years and so well-known, would run so comparatively "poorly" right here in his backyard. Amazing. I can't get over how savvy our voters have become.