WASHINGTON/ALBANY - On the same day that the Daily Mail and Register Star are running versions of a story (more conservatively for Catskill) about the current Bush Tax Bill extension fight in Washington, pitting incoming Congressman Chris Gibson, Republican, against the man he defeated, Democrat Scott Murphy, after Murphy voted along with the rest of the current House Democratic majority for limiting tax extensions to the middle class, the Times Union has a fascinating story about the amounts of outside money that came into the 20th Congressional District this past electoral cycle, and how they helped Gibson ride the underlying voter registration demographics of Upstate, briefly overturned by Kristin Gillibrand a few years back when she defeated John Sweeney, and barely maintained in Murphy's special election 800-vote win last year.

"U.S. Rep. Scott Murphy raised and spent more money than his opponent, but it couldn't save his job," reporter Jordan Carleo-Evangelist writes, pulling from newly-released Federal Election Commission reports and records. "But the numbers fail to tell the whole story.... While Gibson, a retired Army colonel from Kinderhook, lagged Murphy in personal fundraising, he benefited greatly from spending by outside organizations, much of it from conservative-leaning groups opposing Murphy for his votes on controversial issues such as the health care reform bill. More than $1.7 million was spent to oppose Murphy in 2010, compared to just $696,000 to oppose Gibson."

Carleo-Evangelist ties the Gibson outside money to the U.S. Supreme Court decision that allowed the spending of unlimited amounts of cash on election advertising. Among actual amounts charted in our region were $447,366 from American Crossroads, a group backed by Republican strategist Karl Rove, and $498,950 from the conservative-leaning 60 Plus Association.

Read the full story here.