Election!

There was a very interesting election on November 03, 2009. It was a special election in New York State’s 23rd congressional district. The election was to replace Republican John M. McHugh. McHugh resigned from office to become United States Secretary of the Army.
There were two candidates in this race: third-party candidate, Doug Hoffman, and Democrat Bill Owens. There were three candidates until Republican state Assemblywoman, Diedre Scozzafava, decided to suspend her campaign indefinitely. She chose to endorse her competitor Bill Owens. The 23rd district has been one of the most Republican districts in the Northeast. A Democrat has not represented the district since 1871. Third-party candidate Doug Hoffman was receiving a lot of support from the Republican Party, including Sarah Palin, Fred Thompson and Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty. Doug Hoffman also said Scozzafava was too liberal, stating her support of same-sex marriage and abortion rights as evidence. He was painting the picture to voters that you do not want that kind of Republican she is, representing them in a Democratic-led Congress. These are all thought to be reasons why Diedre Scozzafava dropped out of the race.
For the Democratic nomination, there were initially eleven contenders however the overall winner and nominee was Bill Owens, a Plattsburgh, New York attorney. Owens has been registered as an independent voter since the age of eighteen but recently applied to become a Democrat. "Along with keeping Fort Drum strong, I'll fight to attract green jobs to Upstate New York using regional resources such as our strong workforce and local infrastructure," Owens says. Owens supports President Obama’s reform, however opposes cuts in Medicare benefits and taxes on health care benefits. For Social Issues Owens supports civil unions and abortion rights; however he opposes same-sex marriage. For the economy he wants to prohibit tax breaks for companies that outsource jobs and restore fiscal restraint with balanced budgets. “We can go backward to the Bush agenda which includes tax cuts for the very wealthy, privatization of social security and tax credits for companies that send jobs overseas, the recession, a 4.9 trillion dollar addition to the deficit, or they can move forward with us,” Owens said.
The third-party nominees included Jon Alvarez a military serviceman, Jim Kelly, a retired police officer, and Salvatore Stassi, an East Syracuse police officer from Fulton, New York. The overall winner and nominee for the third-party was Doug Hoffman, an accountant from Lake Placid, New York. He is a registered Republican but is running for the Conservative Party. "I sense the America I love is being taken away from us," he says. "I want to tell Washington: No more bailouts. No more taxes. No more trillion-dollar deficits." Hoffman opposes Obama’s healthcare reform including the public health insurance option. For the most common social issues, Hoffman does not believe in same-sex marriage, just like Bill Owens. Hoffman, however, believes abortion is wrong. When it comes to the economy, he wants to cut federal income taxes and deficit spending.
According to Whitehouse spokesperson Robert Gibbs, "This [election] is a model for what you'll see throughout the country." According to former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, this is a very important election leading up to the mid-term 2010 elections. “The Republican Revolution in 1994 started very much like what we see today,” the former speaker said. “Like then, our country is reeling from misguided liberal policies, high taxes and out-of-control spending. This special election in New York’s 23rd Congressional District could be the first election of the new Republican Revolution, but we need the momentum to get it started.” This district, although it has been strictly Republican since 1871, it has shown that is it willing to break from the past. In the 2008 Presidential elections, John McCain was defeated by Barack Obama by a 52%-47% margin. According to many analysts, this election will give momentum to Democrats.
The overall winner of New York’s 23rd Congressional district was Democratic Candidate Bill Owens. I believe Bill Owens won because the 23rd district was ready for change and this is how they are going to start that change. I think this is going to have a ripple effect throughout the country.