Rep. Bill Owens (D)

The new congressman from the 23rd District of New York is Democrat Bill Owens, a political newcomer who eked out a victory while preoccupied Republicans fought a bloody ideological battle among themselves. Owens was able to capture the seat for the Democrats in the November 3, 2009 election after a moderate Republican, who seemed to fit the district’s middle-of-the-road political profile, was forced out of contention by prominent GOP conservatives Sarah Palin, Dick Armey, Tom Pawlenty and others. In the final weeks of the campaign, the heavyweights on the right stepped into the local race to push the candidacy of conservative Lake Placid businessman Doug Hoffman, who promptly lost the contest to Owens. He succeeds moderate Republican John McHugh, who represented the district for 15 years before becoming President Barack Obama’s Army secretary earlier this year. Owens’ election increased the Democratic House majority to 258 seats to the Republicans’ 177 as Democrats prepared to try to pass a sweeping overhaul of national health care policy.

Owens was born in Brooklyn, the only child of a civil engineer and a homemaker. The family moved to Long Island when he was 5 years old, and later settled in the suburb of Mineola. Owens graduated from Manhattan College, where he joined the Air Force ROTC, and got a deferment to attend law school at Fordham University. When he got his law degree, he was commissioned in the Air Force Judge Advocate General Corps (JAG). He was stationed for two years at Wurtsmith Air Force Base in Michigan and then was transferred to New York’s Plattsburgh Air Force Base. Both he and his wife, Jane, whom he had met in college, grew to love the area and decided to remain there to raise their family after Owens’ military commitment was over.

When the Plattsburgh base was shuttered in 1995, Owens helped found the Plattsburgh Airbase Redevelopment Corp., a group that tried to develop it into a commercial center by recruiting industry to the area. He helped the group achieve tax exempt status and briefly served as its general counsel. Owens also went into local private practice, becoming a managing partner of the Plattsburgh firm of Stafford, Owens, Curtin & Trombley, where he focused on business and tax law.

In early June 2009, McHugh, who had represented the district since 1993, accepted Obama’s offer to become secretary of the Army. There are no primaries for special elections in New York, so candidates for the special election to replace McHugh were chosen by the party chairmen in the 11 counties that make up the 23rd District. Republicans nominated six-term Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava, a moderate similar in her politics to McHugh. She favored abortion rights, supported same-sex marriage and had strong ties to organized labor. Unhappy with the choice, the New York Conservative Party put up its own candidate, Hoffman. Democrats were unable to recruit their top choice for the race, state Sen. Darrel Aubertine, who decided against running. They settled on first-time candidate Owens, who had neither comparable name recognition to Aubertine nor experience running in a contested election. Owens had previously been an independent, but said that over time, his views came to be more in line with the Democratic Party, particularly on economic issues. To win over local leaders, Owens stressed his work in the community, particularly on job creation. In lining up behind Owens, Democratic leaders hoped that his independence and military service would remind voters of the moderate McHugh. Republicans have a registration advantage of about 46,500 voters in the district, but Obama carried it by five percentage points, making it centrist territory.

As a possible bellwether for the 2010 midterm elections, the race got the attention of national figures and organizations. Hoffman was helped by the deep pockets of the national anti-tax group Club for Growth, which helped him highlight Scozzafava’s liberal social positions and her support for Democrats’ economic proposals, including the January 2009 economic stimulus bill. Early polls showed Scozzafava leading, but as the race wore on she struggled with fundraising. In the closing weeks of the campaign, Hoffman won endorsements from 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee Palin, former U.S. House Majority Leader Armey and Minnesota Gov. Pawlenty. Hoffman’s polls numbers rose, and on Oct. 31, Scozzafava announced that she was withdrawing from the race. The National Republican Congressional Committee switched its endorsement to Hoffman, but Scozzafava backed former Democratic rival Owens. “It’s not in the cards for me to be your representative, but I strongly believe Bill (Owens) is the only candidate who can build upon John McHugh’s lasting legacy in the U.S. Congress,” she said in a statement.

On November 3, even as Republicans prevailed in gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey, Owens gave Democrats a victory in New York, beating Hoffman 49% to 46%, with Scozzafava garnering 5%. His win followed the upstate New York victory in March 2009 of Democrat Scott Murphy in the adjacent 20th District. Murphy defeated Republican James Tedisco, the New York Assembly minority leader, by a margin of just 726 votes. Owens’ victory leaves Peter King and Chris Lee as the only two Republicans in New York’s congressional delegation.

Owens was sworn in on November 6, 2009. The next day, a Saturday, he voted for the House Democrats’ health care overhaul. During the campaign, he had stressed expanding coverage to the uninsured and requiring plans to cover pre-existing conditions. He said of the bill: “This legislation will reform the insurance industry and provide increased access to affordable health care without taxing health care benefits, cutting Medicare benefits or raising taxes on the middle class, and that is exactly the direction we need to go.”

by Jessica Taylor