How did a Democrat win a Congressional seat in a district that always votes overwhelmingly Republican?  Medicare is the answer.  The Associated Press described the results:

The Democrat rode a wave of voter discontent over the national GOP’s plan to change Medicare and overcame decades of GOP dominance here to capture Tuesday’s special election in New York’s 26th Congressional District.

…The special election that became a referendum on the health care plan for the nation’s seniors may serve as a warning shot to further GOP efforts to cut popular entitlement programs.

The Democratic candidate, Kathy Hochul, got the message right by saying we can’t decimate Medicare while giving billions of dollars in tax breaks to oil companies. It’s a simple message and it resonates with voters: young, old, independent, and even Republicans.

This was a special election to fill a seat in Congress vacated by a Republican who left office amid a scandal over his Craig’s List pick up posts and picture (looking buff with no shirt on). He was a married man who had campaigned on family values.  Yuck!  That guy won the 2008 election with 70% of the vote.

Republicans have attacked their own who have dared to speak against the Paul Ryan plan to turn Medicare into a  voucher system and hand it over to insurance companies.  The House of Representatives recently voted for the Ryan budget, and almost every Republican endorsed ending Medicare as we know it – or as Newt Gingrich put it,  “radical social engineering”. Democrats in the Senate will force a vote on the Ryan budget soon, so Republican senators can go on record with their position on the future of Medicare.

I’m looking forward to 2012 as I continue to blog about Medicare. What fun this is  going to be!