Democrat Wins House Race Seen by G.O.P. as Obama Referendum

A 39-year-old Democrat in his first run for office emerged Friday as the winner of a hotly contested Congressional race in upstate New York, dashing Republican hopes for the start of a comeback after the party's disastrous November losses.

The Democrat, Scott Murphy, a venture capitalist who echoed President Obama's promises of bipartisanship, expanded health care and an economic turnaround, said his victory after a drawn-out vote count showed that voters had no patience for partisan bickering and wanted their leaders to work together like grown-ups.

Republicans downplayed the loss in the special election, held on March 31, as predictable given recent Democratic gains in the district, and more generally in the Northeast. But the party had invested heavily in Mr. Tedisco's race, and with good reason: Republicans hold a 75,000-vote registration edge in the district, the party's biggest advantage in New York. And Mr. Tedisco, 58, who was the Assembly minority leader, was a familiar and feisty party spokesman on Albany television, while Mr. Murphy was unknown.

Mr. Tedisco's defeat came as an embarrassment for Michael Steele, the Republican national chairman, who publicly identified the race as a prime target and campaigned twice for Mr. Tedisco. (The Democratic National Committee quickly threw Mr. Steele's statements back in his face on Friday, posting a YouTube video called "Broken Steele.")