Republican Bob Turner Wins in New York Special Election

With 70% of precincts reporting in New York's 9th congressional district, Republican Bob Turner is leading 53% to 47% and his lead is only expected to grow. The AP calls it for Turner:

Weprin tried to cast Turner as hostile to popular entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare. It's a formula that worked for another Democrat, Kathy Hochul, who won a heavily Republican upstate New York district in a special election last May by vowing to protect those programs.

But Weprin, an orthodox Jew, was on the defensive on gay marriage and Israel, which could have peeled away some support from the Orthodox community. He voted in favor of same-sex nuptials in the New York Assembly, and some Jewish voters threatened to withhold support for Weprin because they disapprove of Obama's policies toward the Jewish state. Former Mayor Ed Koch, a Democrat, endorsed Turner.

The Cook Political report's David Wasserman called the race about an hour before the AP (follow him on Twitter for campaigns, elections, and redistricting news).