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November 2, 2009

Owens, Hoffman sprint to the finish

Stars out in final bid to win sole contested Congress seat

By VALERIE BAUMAN

ALBANY — With the Republican out of the race and unions lining up behind their candidate, national Democrats on Monday used a high-profile campaigner and ramped up get-out-the-vote efforts to try to grab a congressional seat in a district held for decades by the GOP.

On the other side, a splintered Republican Party brought in its own big names to try to salve over wounds opened by a bruising special election campaign that has seen a maverick third-party conservative candidate outgun the hand-picked Republican.

Away from the rallies, organized labor claiming membership of 110,000 people in the sprawling 23rd Congressional District knocked on doors, staffed phone banks and flooded the radio waves to give Democrat William Owens its united, last-minute clout in the last 72 hours of his unpredictable campaign against Douglas Hoffman, a member of the state's Conservative Party.

Hoffman and Owens scrambled in the final hours to win the district, which stretches from eastern Lake Ontario up and over to the Canadian and Vermont borders and has suddenly become a national battleground for the identity of the Republican Party.

What started as a three-way race with Hoffman initially playing the role of spoiler turned into a frantic duel when Republican Dierdre Scozzafava abruptly dropped out over the weekend and backed Owens. She was sharply criticized in the strongly Republican district for some views, including her support of abortion rights and same-sex marriage, that some conservatives balked at.

The schism has pushed high-profile support Hoffman's way, including from former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and others. Scozzafava was initially backed by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who said he was disappointed by her support of Owens following her withdrawal.

Polls have shown the two candidates nearly even in the district, which has about 45,000 more registered Republicans than Democrats.

Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, the House Republican leader, had a one-word answer Monday when asked if he regrets the money and support he and fellow party officials had given Scozzafava. "Yes," he said.

He later added: "This lady clearly has an agenda that's different from most Republicans. She was out there for herself."

Speaking in Watertown Monday, Vice President Joe Biden said the Conservatives' view is narrow and a reflection of failed Bush-Cheney policies, espousing a philosophy that "you are either absolutely right or morally wrong.'"

"We need to bring people together, not divide them," Biden said. "This is a place ... where people have strong views but not closed minds."

Meanwhile, automated calls by Rudy Giuliani, the former presidential candidate and New York City mayor who helped comfort the nation after 9/11, flooded telephone lines.

"Voting for Doug Hoffman is the only way to stop (House Speaker) Nancy Pelosi from gaining one more liberal vote for higher taxes, higher federal deficits and government-run health care," Giuliani stated in his automated phone calls.

John Rich of the country music duo Big & Rich was performing Monday evening at a rally for Hoffman, where Fred Thompson, a former GOP presidential candidate and star of TV's "Law & Order," was speaking.

But the tumultuous weekend could help the Democrat out, too.

The AFL-CIO and the New York State United Teachers union united over the weekend for Owens.

"That's key for Owens," said Steven Greenberg of the Siena College poll. "There are not many unions who have the get-out-vote potential" of the teachers union.

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