Republicans had hoped they could steal Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand's old upstate House seat and thus make the president fail a REFERENDUM on his policies. Instead the candidates ended election night 65 votes apart.

There are upwards of 6,000 absentee ballots to be counted, including any overseas ballots that arrive by April 13, following a Department of Justice lawsuit to force the state to extend its initial April 7 deadline.

Both candidates have been campaigning in relation to the president's stimulus plan (for/against), so obviously if the Obama's robot proxy Scott Murphy loses the Republican-leaning district by say a dozen absentee ballots, it's a terrible rebuke to everything Obama stands for, and the $1.6 million the GOP invested is money well spent.