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Nickdfresh
11-04-2009, 06:40 AM
Dem wins seat in heavily GOP N.Y. area
Race reveals split between moderates, conservatives in Republican party
The Associated Press
updated 3:43 a.m. ET, Wed., Nov . 4, 2009

ALBANY, N.Y. - A Democrat running in a historically Republican stronghold won a closely watched special congressional election in northern New York state, capitalizing on a split that emerged between moderates and conservatives for control of the Republican Party.

With 92 percent of the precincts reporting early Wednesday, lawyer and retired Air Force Capt. Bill Owens defeated businessman Doug Hoffman, the Conservative Party candidate, 49 percent to 45 percent, after a boost from unified labor efforts in the last days of the campaign and the withdrawal of the Republican candidate over the weekend.

"This has been an extraordinary journey," said Owens, who thanked his family, President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.

"The process of bringing people together to get results is something I've been doing for a long time, and that's what I'm going to continue to do when I get to Washington," he added.

Owens also thanked one-time opponent Dierdre Scozzafava, a moderate Republican who exited the race Saturday under pressure from the party's right wing because of her support of abortion rights and same-sex marriage and momentum behind Hoffman.

Scozzafava, an assemblywoman in the state legislature, remained on the ballot and picked up 6 percent of the vote herself in Tuesday's election.

National attention
The race has been getting national attention, with some calling it a referendum on President Barack Obama and others saying it could help Republicans focus their message to attract more people to the party.

Owens will be up for election for a full term next year.

Republicans hadn't lost in the region in more than a century. Owens defeated Hoffman despite a 45,000-voter registration edge for Republicans and big-name endorsements for Hoffman from former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, former Republican Sen. Fred Thompson and others. Hoffman had rallied an unexpected level of support in the final days of the campaign, ultimately forcing Scozzafava to quit when he surged past her in the polls.

"This is only one fight in the battle, people," Hoffman said before a gathering of supporters in Saranac Lake, New York, after conceding the race. "Let's keep the fight going. Let's make sure our voices are heard."

The race took several sharp curves leading up to Election Day. It started with Scozzafava in the lead while Hoffman was considered a spoiler at best. That gradually turned around, with polls showing Hoffman moving in to the lead.

Despite the fervor that surrounded Hoffman in the final week of the campaign, Owens managed to appeal to the voters with his talk of job creation and the need of more federal support for farmers and the huge Army base at Fort Drum in the district.

New York state now has only two Republican congressmen in its 29-seat delegation.

The seat became vacant when Obama appointed the incumbent Republican congressman, John McHugh, as secretary of the Army.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Dem wins seat in heavily GOP N.Y. area - More politics- msnbc.com (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33608691/ns/politics-more_politics/)

Big Train
11-04-2009, 02:10 PM
If there is a split, it is among the religious right and libertarian conservatives (of which I could myself to be). I'm about fiscal basics without the religious or social issues tied in. I think the political presence of others like me is growing and slowly reshaping things. The Republican Party itself needs a lot of retooling.

However, unchecked Dems are screwing it up for themselves. They SHOULD be passing all kinds of stuff right now, while they have an open road. THe fact that they aren't is what is going to screw them in 2010.

Nickdfresh
11-04-2009, 03:04 PM
If there is a split, it is among the religious right and libertarian conservatives (of which I could myself to be). I'm about fiscal basics without the religious or social issues tied in. I think the political presence of others like me is growing and slowly reshaping things. The Republican Party itself needs a lot of retooling.

That's one of the only splits, and it's a bit 2008 actually...

The split here is pretty clearly social conservatives (or reactionaries actually) against "Rockefeller moderates" in the GOP...

Not every business friendly Republican believes you should monitor every chicks vagina for fetus...


However, unchecked Dems are screwing it up for themselves. They SHOULD be passing all kinds of stuff right now, while they have an open road. THe fact that they aren't is what is going to screw them in 2010.

But yet, if they were passing stuff left and right, you'd be pissing and moaning about their arrogance...

BITEYOASS
11-04-2009, 08:49 PM
I think the religious wingnuts and neo-cons need to be purged from the Republican party if they want to stand a chance at being elected again.

Ally_Kat
11-06-2009, 08:35 AM
Downstate the split is for different reasons: power.

Not surprisingly, there are only two main regions of NYC that are Republican-dominant. The town I live in used to be the head of the Republican party in NYC. The other town involved, which is only a half hour drive away, was not pleased with this. They did a lot of sabotaging and paid off a lot of people to ruin campaigns for any politicians that upstarted from our area. Want to thank someone for Bloomberg? Thank them. Our group refused to because he's a party flopper and now we're paying the consequences, I guess, because now all the candidates come from their area and they refused to allocate any money to the one candidate from our area that we really needed to win last Tuesday.

I don't see how this is productive for the party because their candidates can't hold their own to the Democrat candidates. And we don't have term limits anymore, so a candidate getting elected to office is a little more permanent that an 8 yr stint.

So mature. *sigh*