Seen at last night's Bob Turner Victory Celebration:

It reads: "Mazel Tov, Bob!"

Source: NRO's The Corner

Dave Weigel at Slate:

The first wedge issue, getting a little less attention on Tuesday, was gay marriage. Earlier this year, Assemblyman David Weprin voted for the successful bill that legalized same-sex unions in New York. He explained his vote by explaining the tenets of his Orthodox Jewish faith. “I think everyone here would agree that we should not be outlawing marriages between Jews and non-Jews or interracial marriages,” he said.

That was dangerous. At least 40 Orthodox rabbis in the district signed a letter pronouncing it “forbidden according to Torah law” to vote for Weprin; this in a district where perhaps one-third of ballots would be cost by Jews, many of them Orthodox. The National Organization for Marriage, which had failed to stop the gay marriage bill, trained its death ray on Weprin, organizing direct mail and robocalls to spread the rabbis’ message, and targeting the district’s Hispanic voters – about 15 percent of the population – with a robocall from conservative State Sen. Ruben Diaz, Sr.

The short answer is yes:

Politicians who are on the fence about coming out for [same-sex marriage] will undoubtedly take note of NOM's success with a seat which should have been a cakewalk for the Democrats.

Wiser heads than ours can probably argue that there were larger forces at play than simply [same-sex marriage].

Still, judging from the stream in our (extremely) little slice of the twitterverse, NY-9 was all about gay marriage, Weprin's vote, and NOM's vow to take him on.

And unquestionably, today the [same-sex marriage] foes won -- both in NY-9 and in North Carolina.

Brian Brown, president of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), released the following statement following Bob Turner's historic victory over David Weprin in the special election held today in New York's 9th Congressional District tonight:

“NY-9 is another victory for marriage in our country. This district, which Obama won, Clinton won, and which has had a Democrat in Congress since 1923, showed Tuesday that marriage is important. David Weprin was not able to defend himself against his vote to support same-sex marriage in New York, and his constituents made that clear. 42 percent of them oppose same-sex marriage. 29 percent said marriage was a significant issue in this race. And on Tuesday, well over a majority of them showed Weprin that they have had enough.

“NOM played a major role in this election, helping to organize the Jewish and Hispanic communities to coalesce with Republicans, conservative and other pro-family voters. We mounted the first and largest independent expenditure campaign in the race to make marriage a key issue, and we succeeded. David Weprin is not going to Congress for one reason: he listened to Andrew Cuomo, Michael Bloomberg, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and a few billionaires on Wall Street and went along with them to redefine marriage. Weprin foolishly believed them when they promised to protect him from any fallout over his vote to redefine marriage. The HRC even has gone so far as to absurdly claim that no politician has ever been defeated over his or her vote to redefine marriage, even though NOM is responsible for defeating countless same-sex marriage advocates and electing hundreds of candidates who have pledged their support for traditional marriage."

"Our message to the rest of the politicians in Albany who voted to redefine marriage is this: 'You’re next.' Once again voters have said: 'Don’t Mess With Marriage!'"

The Associated Press just declared the special election in NY-9 a victory for Bob Turner, who is currently leading pro-SSM David Weprin by over 6%. This is the first time the seat has been held by a Republican since 1923.

We also know this is a huge victory for marriage -- more from us on that soon!

Our President Brian Brown is at Bob Turner HQ watching Turner take the stage right now!

Thank you and congratulations to everyone who joined us in defeating David Weprin, sending a loud-and-clear message: don't mess with marriage!

For a recap of our complete coverage of this race, check-out this link.

Update -- Brian Brown tweets this photo of Bob Turner and the Turner family:

Update 2 - Read Brian Brown's special statement on tonight's result in NY-9 and what it means for marriage in New York and beyond.

Brian is in NY-9, with the Turner Victory (We Hope!) Party. Watch with us online!

David Weigel over at Slate offers a guide to results:

I'll be following the elections all night on this page. Do you want to see results? Of course you do.

NY-09 is here.

NV-02 is here.

NY-09 is going to be the story of the night, the one that Democrats have tried to bail out as David Weprin's momentum has stuttered. The raw totals from the AP won't be terribly useful; my friend David Wasserman has broken down the district in a more illustrative way.

Woodhaven/Ozone Park, Queens - The lowest-turnout region of the district, but the one where Barack Obama did best in 2008 -- 73 percent of the vote.

Forest Hills/Rego Park, Queens - This is the strong, diverse Democratic base of the district, where Barack Obama won 66 percent of the vote while winning district-wide by 10 points.

Fresh Meadows/Kew Garden Hills, Queens - Obama's last stronghold, where he won 64 percent of the vote.

Middle Village/Maspeth/Glendale, Queens - Obama won only 50 percent here, a bastion of ethnic (Italian) white voters.

Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn - Obama won 42 percent of the vote here. Watch these precincts for signs of a Turner rout.

Marine Park/Rockaway Beach/Howard Beach, Brooklyn/Queens - The GOP stronghold, which swung to Republicans after 9/11 and delivered 76 percent of the vote for McCain in 2008.

It's already been a great day for marriage -- with North Carolina voting to allow the people to vote on it in 2012 -- but we still have an important election to watch which is being decided right now by the voters of Queens and Brooklyn in New York's 9th Congressional District.

Stay tuned here throughout the night for live updates from us!

And if you haven't already, come out and vote for marriage in NY-9!