When President Obama selected GOP Rep. John M. McHugh to serve as Secretary of the Army, he created another special House election in upstate New York. You probably remember the Republican disappointment with the last one, on March 31, in the state’s 20th congressional district, where Democrat Scott Murphy narrowly beat Republican Jim Tedisco.

In New York’s 23rd district, the Republican candidate selection will be this week, but it won’t be through the traditional party primary process. Instead, the candidate is chosen by a weighted vote of the party county chairs in each of the district’s 11 counties. The vote is tentatively scheduled for July 22, and will be weighted based on the percentage of people in that district’s portion of the county who voted for the Republican candidate in the last congressional election.

There are nine Republicans interested; among the standouts are Assemblywoman Dierdre Scozzafava, who is one of only two potential candidates with elected experience. On the other hand, some conservatives are grumbling, pointing to a combination of liberal votes and business problems and lamenting, “If Dede Scozzafava is the best the New York Republicans can come up with, let’s just hand the district over to the Democrats.” Then there’s attorney Matthew Doheny, who’s raised $300,000 and loaned his campaign another $500,000, huge sums for a special election.

Then there’s the interesting question of when, precisely, the special election will occur. With the state government in chaos, no date has been set, and the law might allow Gov. David Patterson to wait until the next general election on November 3.

The race is seen by Republicans as another measuring stick of how the public feels about the stimulus and the state of the economy.