What really happened in NY 23
The mayor of Watertown, New York, one Jeff Graham, is a blogger, and this is his report on the District 23 race. Graham endorsed Hoffman. The blog has a sad ending as he contemplates his community’s loss of a seat that had been occupied by a local Republican.
Plattsburgh attorney William Owens will represent NNY [north New York] in Congress after winning a special election today over Lake Placid businessman and Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman. The victory by some four thousand votes was aided in large part by Mr. Owens strong showings in Jefferson and St. Lawrence Counties.
It appears the effort to drive down Hoffman numbers in Greater Watertown and the withdrawal of DeDe Scozzafava and her enthusiastic backing of Owens made a big difference. Credit veteran political operative June O’Neill for brokering the deal that brought Scozzafava’s core vote to Owens. Another factor is once Scozzafava bailed, it would take upper 40s to win and getting a third party candidate to that level is not easy.
A third factor, to some — Scozzafava became the victim and Hoffman was the bad guy.
For Watertown, an awakening as for years we have had our own Congressman who grew up on South Hamilton Street and worked in City Hall. With John McHugh gone, it now appears a man few know will represent us, and the Democrats gain another vote in the House of Representitive.
Also, it must be said, the Republican party in New York is as close to death as you can get, holding only two of 29 Congressional seats and all statewide offices held by Democrats, who also hold both houses of the Legislature.
After redistricting, it could be a 50 year lock for the Dems.
As for Doug Hoffman, his rise this year was impressive and his campaign generally flawless.
As for Mr. Owens…he stayed on message and didn’t make mistakes.
I congratulate Mr. Owens on his impressive win and wish him the best in this new duties. I am sure the residents of the district will join me in offering whatever help is needed to our new Congressman as he seeks to learn more about the many people who now depend on him for representation.
* * * *
I might add here that the endorsement of Owen by the Watertown newspaper is credited by other observers with having a big impact on the race.
Lake Worth Monster says:
Maybe the NY Repubs need to call Tom DeLay in for a consultation on how to rig the districts. At least it appears that they still have some rural reps in Congress, a thing of the past in Texas as the gerrymandering has transfered power to the big city suburbs.
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Sam says:
Interesting close, suggesting that Owens needs to learn more about his constituents, when he got the Watertown newspaper’s endorsement over Hoffman in large part because Hoffman “showed no grasp of the bread-and-butter issues pertinent to district residents in a Thursday morning meeting with the Watertown Daily Times editorial board.”
http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20091023/OPINION01/310239957/-1/OPINION
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Anonymous Reply:
November 5th, 2009 at 7:21 am
From the liberal bastion MSNBC:
“Upstate New Yorkers don’t like carpetbaggers. The Conservative Party candidate, Doug Hoffman, didn’t live in the district, became the national candidate, and didn’t have a command of local issues. The local candidate who best understood that district — Democrat Bill Owens — won.”
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Pat says:
This is what I wanted to see. Local implications, not national. Extrapolating uber-meaning out of this for Obama and the national mood is very nearly nonsensical.
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Dukakis_in_a_Tank says:
I like the last paragraph. Classy guy. I remember how embarrassed I was when some of my fellow Democrats used to say that Bush was not “their” president. I know how I angry I get now when I hear some conservatives say the same thing about Obama. It’s good to hear someone lose gracefully and respect the winner. That’s how a republic should work. Do your best, respect the winner, criticize him when he’s wrong, and run against him next time. But no obstruction for obstruction’s sake.
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Anonymous says:
Good to see that there’s at least an offset coming to the upcoming Texas Republican redistricting massacre.
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Texian Politico says:
NY is likely to lose a couple of seats after the 2010 redistricting. Gov. Patterson’s numbers for reelection are worse than Corzine’s. Reps. Arcuri and Massa are struggling in the polls and barely won last time. Rep. Hall is vulnerable as well. There is a very good chance that the GOP gains three or four eats here in 2010. The issue then becomes whether or not the Democratic controlled lege can draw lines to eliminate those freshman Republicans for the 2012 races. A lot of that will hinge of course on who the governor is after 2010. I’d bet that it won’t be Patterson.
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Sam Reply:
November 5th, 2009 at 8:53 am
I doubt Patterson survives the primary.
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JFK's Ghost says:
Does anyone else find it odd that Republicans are claiming yesterday’s election results show a rebuke to Washington and Obama when the only two races that involved Washington – the NY and CA U.S. House races – went Democratic? They cite the Governors races in NJ and VA as a rebuke to so called Washington policies, but the only races that had anything to do with the federal government went Democratic (and, oh by the way, they were in Republican disticts). Those Governors races boil down to a simple thing; the GOP had better candidates who could talk about real issues.
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Texian Politico Reply:
November 5th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
JFK’s Ghost,
You don’t know what you are talking about. The Northern CA district that LtGov Garamendi won is a staunch Democratic district. Obama earned 65% of the vote there. The fact that Garamendi only won 53% is concerning to many Democrats that analyse these numbers for a living. Also, the Owens-Hoffman race in upstate NY took place in a district that Obama won with about 52%. Owens won, but it was with less than 50%.
NJ and VA became national races when Obama and Biden went and campaigned several times for Corzine and Deeds and when the national Democratic machine poured tons of money into those races. For you to say that the results don’t have any national implications is either pure ignoracy or willfull blindness.
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CharlesfrmDFW Reply:
November 6th, 2009 at 9:16 am
Texian Politico,
I would not read too much into the results in the two statewide races; as for NY 23 we are talking about 150,000 votes here…
Also, for the record, ignoracy is not a word
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JFK's Ghost says:
…and by the way, “Dukakis_in_a_tank” is the funniest user name I have seen in a long time. Good work whoever you are.
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Anonymous says:
Dallas Morning News reports that Perry was supporting the Conservative Party candidate. With all the GOP bandwagon criticism of Obama for backing “losers,” why hasn’t anyone chastised Perry for backing a loser!??
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Pete Schweddy says:
“…why hasn’t anyone chastised Perry for backing a loser!??”
Read Quorum Report. R&D Column.
And JFK’s Ghost, it is not just Repubs that are saying the results are an Obama rebuke — the media is doing it also. He visited NJ five times to stump for his guy — and lost.
Big loss for Obama.
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Anonymous Reply:
November 5th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
Thanks, Pete. Yesterday, Burka and others were all over Obama and his advisors who are supposed to protect him from such horrendous missteps. Just didn’t see Burka, et al., jumping on Perry and his advisors for the same thing.
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JFK's Ghost says:
Okay Pete, but how do you and the media explain the only two races that had anything to do with national politics going to Democrats when they were GOP leaning districts? Again, the answer is because local issues controlled in the NJ and VA Gov. races in addition to the GOP having moderate and likeable candidates in those state level races. As a Dem, I am excited that the GOP thinks that the right wing is somehow the path to follow when, in reality, the right wing was the only thing we can say for certain that was rebuked yesterday based upon the Congressional races that right wing candidates lost, when the math says they should have won.
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Texian Politico Reply:
November 5th, 2009 at 12:55 pm
Again JFK’s Ghost is a dunce on this issue. Those congressional district were both DEMOCRATIC. Obama carried NY CD 23 with around 52% and he won CA CD 10 with 65%. Moreover, CA CD 10 has had a Democratic rep since 1996 when Ellen Tauscher beat Bill Baker. You clearly don’t know what you are talking about, so please retire your smug attitude.
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Anonymous Reply:
November 5th, 2009 at 1:32 pm
Project much? NY-23 hasn’t been held by a Dem in a century.
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Anonymous says:
Texian Politico = spinmeister w/o a brain
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JFK's Ghost says:
Texian Politico is out in left field, or should I say right field on this one. Again, simple math – GOP should have won both congressional districts if Obama, et al. are doing such a terrible job. Keep on spinning, we are counting on you and those like you in 2010.
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caldonia says:
JFK’s Ghost is a dunce as Texian Politico so accurately points out….and if he thinks the Gov’s races in NJ and VA have nothing to do with National politics, then I think Dunce is a very generous description for him!
The real reason Hoffman lost in NY was because the local Repuplicans selected a ‘Closet liberal Democrat’ as their Republican Party candidate….when her true leanings became clear to everyone, Scozzafava saw there was no way for her to win, so she dropped out and promptly endorsed the liberal Democrat affirming her true colors! The fact that Hoffman did as well as he did under these ridiculous circumstances, underscores the fact that true Conservatives like my self are no longer going to vote for some one just because they are in the Republican Party posing as “Moderate conservatives”…(like Sen’s Graham, McCain, Snow, Hutchison etc. etc.)
“Moderate Conservative” Republicans a.k.a. “closet liberals” who don’t get this message will soon be out of office and the sooner the better!!
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Anonymous Reply:
November 5th, 2009 at 4:34 pm
Ha! Ha! Ha! Graham, McCain, Snowe and Hutcheson are closet liberals!!? No, their just not neo-fascists.
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Bill Reply:
November 6th, 2009 at 8:00 am
NY Republicans are in as bad a shape as TX Dems. The Paterson issue will be resolved either by withdrawal or primary defeat, before the Repubs get a shot at him.
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JFK's Ghost says:
So, anyone who points out facts is a dunce and anyone who is not a right wing extremist is a liberal, or “closet liberal”? Caldonia and Texian Politico, keep up that ideology. You guys will clearly sweep in 2010 thinking that way. After all, it worked out great for you in the Congressional races in play yesterday.
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Texian Politico Reply:
November 6th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
You are a dunce and I’d challenge you to a showdown on political districts, races, states, etc. For you to think that the CA CD 10 was a Republican district and that Republicans should have won it is clearly a sign of ignorance. Like I stated before, Obama got 65% in that district. Tauscher has held it very easily since she first won it in 1996. The last time the area that makes up CA CD 10 voted Republican for president was 1988. The district took much of its present shape after the 1990 census. Bill Baker barely won it in 1992 and 1994. For Garamendi, the state’s current Democratic LtGov, to get only 53% in that special election represents a big drop off. This doesn’t have anything to do with what my personal politics are. You simply don’t have a command of the facts and think that calling names and throwing around a bunch of rhetoric makes you somehow better than everyone else. Give it up.
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