The congressman from the 23rd District of New York is Democrat Bill Owens, an affable Democrat who has twice eked out victories while preoccupied Republicans fought bloody ideological battles among themselves. Read More
The congressman from the 23rd District of New York is Democrat Bill Owens, an affable Democrat who has twice eked out victories while preoccupied Republicans fought bloody ideological battles among themselves.
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, 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 redeveloped it into a commercial center. Owens also went into local private practice, focusing on business and tax law.
In early June 2009, Republican John McHugh, who had represented the 23rd District since 1993, accepted President Barack 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 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, Doug Hoffman.
Meanwhile, Democrats, unable to recruit a more experienced candidate, settled on Owens, a political novice with little name recognition. 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. At the time, Republicans had a registration advantage of about 46,500 voters in the district.
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 the Democrats’ 2009 economic stimulus bill. Scozzafava struggled with fundraising. And in the closing weeks of the campaign, Hoffman won endorsements from Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, a favorite of tea party activists, and former U.S. House Majority Leader Dick Armey. Hoffman’s polls numbers rose, and on Oct. 31, Scozzafava announced that she was withdrawing. The National Republican Congressional Committee switched its endorsement to Hoffman, but Scozzafava backed former Democratic rival Owens. On Nov. 3, with Republicans in disarray, Owens eked out a victory of 49% to 46% for Hoffman, with Scozzafava getting 5%. He became the first Democrat to represent the region since 1852.
Owens was sworn in on Nov. 6, 2009, and the next day 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. A member of the Armed Services Committee, he also joined his party on repealing the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy banning openly gay military service members. And he backed additional spending in 2010 to prevent teacher layoffs and extending increased Medicaid payments to states.
But he is the centrist he promised he would be. He opposed the Democrats’ financial services industry overhaul and the DREAM Act giving some children of illegal immigrants a path to citizenship. After Democrats lost their majority in the 2010 elections, Owens told the Adirondack Daily Enterprise it was “quite possible’’ he could support Republican John Boehner for speaker over Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi. He didn’t follow through on the idea, however.
To show voters back home his seriousness about boosting the area’s economy, Owens introduced a slew of economic legislation, including a variety of tax-cutting initiatives and a measure to expand credit for family farmers. He also got a bill into law in January 2011 to develop a strategy to fight drug smuggling between the United States and Canada. Though he backed health care reform, he joined fellow New York Democratic Rep. Scott Murphy in pushing a 2010 bill to repeal a provision to expand 1099 tax reporting for businesses that many small firms complained was overly burdensome.
National Republicans, eyeing a big year in 2010, targeted Owens’ seat. Hoffman returned for a rematch, but he struggled to recapture the tea party-fueled enthusiasm for his initial candidacy, and lost in the primary to Republican Matt Doheny, a Wall Street investment banker who put more than $2.2 million of his own money into the race. At first Hoffman stubbornly refused to bow out, vowing to again run on the Conservative Party ticket. Within three weeks, as it became clearer that he could become the spoiler that Scozzafava was a year earlier, he dropped out and threw his support to Doheny. But it apparently was too little, too late. Owens won 48% to Doheny’s 46% and Hoffman’s 6%. Having established himself, Owens has some breathing room in 2012.
