If you're a Republican Party partisan, the tea parties are a mixed blessing. On the one hand, their insane rantings bring a fresh piquancy to the sometimes staid GOP. On the other hand, they're putting pressure on the GOP to be crazy, extremist, and largely unappealing to moderates. And, they're splitting the vote, even when the "Tea Party" candidate appears to be a fake teapartier.

Thus it is in the case of the NY-26 special election from earlier tonight. Democrat Kathy Hochul "defied political experts [who gave] her little chance of success [and] ground out a stunning and surprisingly comfortable victory" (link) against her Republican opponent Jane Corwin. The spoiler in the race was Jack Davis of the "Tea Party"; Davis has previously run as both a Democrat and a Republican.

Davis got 9%, Corwin 42%, and Hochul 48%.

There's backstory on the race here, and from the Buffalo New link note that the teaparty-approved Paul Ryan plan also played a role in turning voters away from the GOP:

The results marked a stunning defeat for the GOP in a contest that garnered significant national attention as the first competitive race following the Republican takeover of the House of Representatives last November.

While the seat has a long GOP pedigree, it became vacant on Feb. 9 when Rep. Chris Lee, R-Amherst, resigned after a gossip website posted shirtless photos of him seeking dates on the Internet.

After Republican proposals to overhaul Medicare made the race a focus of national attention, Hochul began inching past Corwin in the polls and Davis' strong 23 percent showing withered away. By Monday, Corwin seemed to acknowledge what Election Day would bring when she said she should have countered the Democratic assault on her Medicare stand earlier.

UPDATE: Paul Ryan himself admits that his plan played a role in the GOP's loss, then engaged in denial (link):

"There is a Medicare story to be told here ... and it's that the president and his party have decided to shamelessly distort and demagogue Medicare," Ryan said on MSNBC, calling it a "Mediscare" campaign led by President Obama and Democrats in Congress.

David Frum says "Paul Ryan: 2012’s Goldwater?" (link):

The GOP will run on a platform crafted to be maximally obnoxious to downscale voters. Some may hope that Tim Pawlenty’s biography may cushion the pain. Perhaps that’s right, at least as compared to Mitt Romney, who in the 2008 primaries did worst among Republicans earning less than $100,000 a year. And yes, Pawlenty is keeping his distance from the Ryan plan. But biography only takes you so far. The big issues of 2012 will be jobs and incomes in a nation still unrecovered from the catastrophe of 2008-2009. What does the GOP have to say to hard-pressed voters? Thus far the answer is: we offer Medicare cuts, Medicaid cuts, and tighter money aimed at raising the external value of the dollar.

No candidate, not even if he or she is born in a log cabin, would be able to sell that message to America’s working class.

Henry Olsen of the American Enterprise Institute says in part (link):

For whatever reason, the blue-collar independents and Democrats who voted Republican in droves last year did not vote GOP tonight. And many blue-collar Republicans voted for Davis rather than Corwin.