Bill Owens (D NY-21), who never should have been elected, retires
on January 16, 2014
12 Comments
For those of you who have been reading Legal Insurrection since the early days, the name Bill Owens may be familiar.
Owens won the 2009 special election in what then was the NY-23 District (since reconfigured and now NY-21) against the insurgent conservative candidate Doug Hoffman. In a precursor to the Tea Party uprising, Hoffman ran as a third party candidate and was surging ahead of liberal Republican Dede Scozzafava in a traditionally Republican District.
Robert Stacy McCain did extensive on-the-ground reporting on the race, and has a special emnity for mainstream Republican endorsements of Scozaffava from Newt Gingrich and others:
The Hoffman surge also was a chance for Democrats to test the Tea Party Demonization strategy that continues to this day.
Rather than allow the conservative to win, Scozzafava dropped out of the race and backed Democrat Owens. The influential Watertown Times also switched its endorsement based on Owens' promise to keep bringing home federal port to the district, something Hoffman opposed as a fiscal conservative.
Here are some posts from way back:
The Hoffman surge also was a chance for Democrats to test the Tea Party Demonization strategy that continues to this day.
Rather than allow the conservative to win, Scozzafava dropped out of the race and backed Democrat Owens. The influential Watertown Times also switched its endorsement based on Owens' promise to keep bringing home federal port to the district, something Hoffman opposed as a fiscal conservative.
Here are some posts from way back:
