This past election day, New York's 23rd Congressional district drew national attention. The actual participants - Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman and Democrat Bill Owens - were almost entirely overshadowed by the GOP super-heavyweights campaigning from the right. Frank Rich, in this weekend's New York Times, thought that President Obama's tapping the previous Republican occupant of the 23rd district seat to be secretary of the Army might have been some genius plan of David Axelrod and Rahm Emanuel. A Republican Party mini crack-up ensued.

Dede Scozzafava, the Republican nominee ended up dropping out of the race after conservatives like former Governor Sarah Palin campaigned for her opponent from the Conservative Party. Politico reported that high-ranking national Democrats started working on Dede Scozzafava to secure that endorsement immediately after she dropped out of the race on Saturday.

National political figures like Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, former Governor George Pataki and even MSNBC's token conservative Joe Scarborough attended - and Tweeted - the stumping. Even an electoral college-rich purple state like Virginia didn't get as much national attention as the New York election.

The conservatives who weighed in here profoundly misread the situation. The Democrat won. "Since the Civil War cannons fell silent, [the 23rd Congressional district seat has] never been occupied by a Democrat," wrote Marc Ambinder on The Political Hotsheet. In the end the northeast - already quite blue - became an even more Democrat-centric region. Still, Progressives didn't fare so well either. Rather, moderates were the big winners on election day. Writes John B. Judis in The New Republic:

The Club for Growth alone spent $340,000 running ads for Hoffman. With their backing, Hoffman pushed Scozzafava out of the race. She lacked funds or impassioned followers. But Hoffman and his supporters misjudged the district. When Scozzafava endorsed Owens, many of those who would have voted for her backed Owens, and he won the race. Upstate New York, which used to be solidly Republican, now boasts a single conservative congressman. New York, like New England, has become solidly Democratic.

If the results of New York's 23rd are placed alongside those of New Jersey and Virginia, there is a clear lesson for the Republicans. In New Jersey and Virginia, the gubernatorial candidates ran to the center. Christie is a moderate, and McDonnell at least pretended to be. And as a result, they got the swing vote of independents and moderates. In New York-23, a diehard conservative backed by rightwing groups repudiated the center and lost to a neophyte Democratic candidate who probably could not have beaten Scozzafava in a one-to-one contest.

Democrats have reason to worry about candidates like McDonnell--particularly if the unemployment rate continues in 2010 to undermine Obama's standing among voters. That is the message that the Virginia election sends. But Democrats don't have to worry about a party dominated by Armey, Beck, Palin, and Hoffman. That is the message of New York's 23rd.

The Democrats may be right. However, something tells me that Glenn Beck isn't going anywhere anytime soon.