On January 14, 2014, U.S. House Representative Bill Owens (D-Plattsburgh) announced his decision not to seek re-election. This was unfortunate, because this district was traditionally Republican, and it appeared to be a safe seat.
Mr. Owens was first elected in 2009 - a race that garnered national attention, as it was a special election to replace John McHugh (R-Watertown). It was a huge victory for the Democrats, as Mr. Owens subsequently became a key vote in the passage of the ACA.
Now that he has retired, the seat is up for grabs.
Just for gloating purposes, I add the following trip down memory lane, from an article titled "The Night They Drove the Tea Partiers Down", written on November 7, 2009 by Frank Rich in the New York Times:
As Fox kept insisting, all eyes were glued on Doug Hoffman, the insurgent tea party candidate in New York’s 23rd Congressional District. A “tidal wave” was on its way, said Sean Hannity, and the right would soon “take back the Republican Party.” The race was not “even close,” Bill O’Reilly suggested to the pollster Scott Rasmussen, who didn’t disagree. When returns showed Hoffman trailing, the network’s resident genius, Karl Rove, knowingly reassured viewers that victory was in the bag, even if we’d have to stay up all night waiting for some slacker towns to tally their votes.
Alas, the Dewey-beats-Truman reveries died shortly after midnight, when even Fox had to concede that the Democrat, Bill Owens, had triumphed in what had been Republican country since before Edison introduced the light bulb. For the far right, the thriller in Watertown was over except for the ludicrous morning-after spin that Hoffman’s loss was really a victory. For the Democrats, the excitement was just beginning. New York’s 23rd could be celebrated as a rare bright spot on a night when the party’s gubernatorial candidates lost in Virginia and New Jersey.
In any event, the Democrats have nominated
Aaron Woolf for the 2014 race. He seems fine. My understanding is that he is a film producer, and he is right on most of the issues.
The fun part of the race, popcorn-wise, has been the GOP side. There was a somewhat bitter primary where Elise Stefanik, a 29 year-old Tea Party favorite, defeated Matt Doheny, a more "moderate" Republican. There were some hard feelings, as Karl Rove's group - American Crossroads - really jumped in on Stefanik's behalf. As Mark Weiner described it on Syracuse.com:
Asked why American Crossroads decided to jump into the Upstate New York primary, Lindsay said, "We think it's time for a fresh start in this district, especially when Republicans have such a tremendous pickup opportunity with an open seat."
Mr. Doheny, 43, was apparently not ready to be put out to pasture. From the same article:
Doheny added, "It's sad and unfortunate that Karl Rove's GOP SuperPac would spend contributions from good Republican donors from across the country in a coordinated effort with the Stefanik campaign in an attempt to purchase this primary. Stefanik claims to be running a positive campaign, but the truth is that she is behind in the race and her DC backers are afraid they won't have someone they can control in Washington."
There had been some speculation that Doheny would run as a fourth party candidate (Matt Funiciello is running on the Green Party ticket). That would have been great, but alas it was not to be. Today, Mr. Doheny
endorsed Ms. Stefanik. So I will have to put the popcorn back.
Ms. Stefanik is presenting herself as a "new alternative" with "fresh ideas". However, other than being young and female, it isn't clear how she differs from any other Tea Party candidates. She claims to be a small-business person, but she lists the following experience on her website:
Elise most recently served as Director of Vice Presidential Debate Prep to Paul Ryan where she oversaw all debate preparations for the Republican Vice Presidential nominee. She served as Director of Communications for the Foreign Policy Initiative, which launched Defending Defense, a coalition of think tanks warning of the dangers of the sequester. Prior to her think tank work, she served as the Policy Director for Governor Pawlenty’s Presidential campaign.
From 2006 – 2009, Elise served in the West Wing of the White House as part of President George W. Bush’s Domestic Policy Council Staff and in the Chief of Staff’s office where she assisted in overseeing the policy development process on all economic and domestic policy issues.
Her website explains that she currently works for her family's business, American Plywood. Seems like a bit of a stretch to identify as a "small businesswoman" - if you do the math, a 29 year-old who worked for George Bush and Paul Ryan, etc., since 2006 would seem to be a Washington bureaucrat, but who am I to question someone's self-identification?
I haven't seen any polls, but I have seen the race described as about even. It is a race to keep an eye on, because we would hate to lose a seat.