By Peter Roff

Most of the pundits who follow national politics have already made up their minds about what’s going on in New York.

 
They see the possibility of a GOP pickup of two or even three seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, especially if President Barack Obama’s job approval number is, as it appears to be, headed south of 40 percent. Aside from that, however, they expect bad news for the GOP.

New York’s Republican Party has yet to recover from the thumping it received eight years ago at the hands of the now-disgraced Elliot Spitzer, the former governor whom history will always refer to as “Client No. 9.”

Partisans on both sides see the NYGOP as weak, which is why some connected to the party have made common cause with Democrat Andrew Cuomo in his bid for a second term. They know the spoils coming out of Albany get divided up, and they’re making a play for a piece of the action.

On paper, Cuomo looks strong. The latest polls show him with a commanding lead of more than 30 points over his Republican opponent, Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino. What the analysts and rent-seekers among the political class forget is…

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