Special Election: Lessons Learned

Politico reports:

With polls showing Republican Bob Turner poised for a dramatic upset in the race for a largely Democratic district, there’s little public sign of larger GOP involvement — despite becoming increasingly active behind the scenes as their underdog candidate gained traction.

There’s a simple reason for that, party officials say: no matter how well Turner is doing, the national Republican Party brand simply isn’t so hot in New York City. A Siena Research Institute poll out Friday showed just 30 percent of the district’s voters expressing a favorable view of House Speaker John Boehner.

The party successfully navigated similar conundrums last year in Brown’s race for Ted Kennedy’s Massachusetts Senate seat and later in the race for a vacant Hawaii congressional district, when party operatives quietly funneled money and offered strategic advice to Charles Djou.