Victory for Fossella redefined for lower expectations

via Tom;

"The Democrats will spend money," said Brooklyn GOP consultant Gerry O'Brien. "Vito will do what he has to do to win. He'll break a sweat this time. But unless there's some major shift, he still wins with 53 or 55 percent of the vote."

One thing to watch, said O'Brien, is how well Fossella is able to raise money now that the GOP is no longer in the congressional majority and Fossella lost his seat on the House Financial Services Committee.

First thing to note is that GOP consultants are already declaring that Fossella will likely receive his lowest percent of the vote. 53-55% for Fossella would mean at least a 2-4% drop for Fossella. This can't exactly be a shining point for his campaign and may be signs that there is some doubt and/or concern in the GOP camp if a year out this is what they would be hoping for as a positive outcome.

Second note is that the GOP consultant himself shows the trouble Fossella is in, although it is unclear if this was intentional on his part. Telling voters to watch is how well (or poorly) Fossella raises money only corroborates what we have already reported here, that Fossella's fund raising machine has almost shut down. He is spending more money than he is able to raise. He is running a campaign in a large amount of debt for a year now. Finally Fossella is all but broke, currently with his only cash legally untouchable until after the primiary in September 2008.