Chris Gibson, a Republican, is the new congressman from the 20th District, elected in 2010. He grew up in Kinderhook, played basketball at Ichabod Crane High School and joined the Army National Guard one day after his 17th birthday. He graduated magna cum laude from Siena College outside Albany and later earned a doctorate from Cornell University. Gibson served 24 years in the Army and was deployed to Kosovo, Haiti and four times to Iraq. He taught American politics at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and was a Hoover National Security Affairs fellow at Stanford University. He also was a congressional fellow in the office of Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., and wrote a 2008 book called Securing the State, about civil-military relations in the Defense Department. Read More

Chris Gibson, a Republican, is the new congressman from the 20th District, elected in 2010. He grew up in Kinderhook, played basketball at Ichabod Crane High School and joined the Army National Guard one day after his 17th birthday. He graduated magna cum laude from Siena College outside Albany and later earned a doctorate from Cornell University. Gibson served 24 years in the Army and was deployed to Kosovo, Haiti and four times to Iraq. He taught American politics at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and was a Hoover National Security Affairs fellow at Stanford University. He also was a congressional fellow in the office of Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., and wrote a 2008 book called Securing the State, about civil-military relations in the Defense Department.

In February 2009, Democratic Gov. David Paterson appointed 20th District Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand to the Senate seat vacated by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. In the special election triggered by the vacancy, the Republican nominee was state Assembly Minority Leader Jim Tedisco and the Democratic nominee was high-tech entrepreneur Scott Murphy, who campaigned as a moderate Democrat with Gillibrand’s strong endorsement. The May special election was exceedingly close: Murphy won by a 726-vote margin, 50.2%-49.8%. In the House, Murphy voted against President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul in 2009, but later switched and voted for the final bill, because of improvements, he said, in its small-business provisions. That vote and one in favor of the Democrats’ cap-and-trade bill to curb carbon emissions made him a target for Republicans running on an anti-Obama theme in 2010.

Gibson focused his campaign on familiar fiscal conservative issues and a tough-on-terrorists national security platform. After a tea party candidate dropped out, he was unopposed in the Republican primary. Not surprisingly, Gibson criticized Murphy for his vote on cap-and-trade and health care. Murphy argued that he had bargained for a reduced tax on medical devices and paper manufacturers, both good for the district.

Gibson called for a property tax cap to encourage economic growth, streamlined regulations and lower health care costs through private sector competition and consumer incentives. On national security, he promised to work to better coordinate efforts to detect terrorist threats. Murphy tried to distance himself from liberal House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and touted his moderate voting record in the mold of Gillibrand and his breaks with Democratic leaders on issues such as gun control. He got some attention with an ad depicting Gibson riding an animated cartoon crocodile that eats a middle-class family, and asserting that his opponent will “feed on the middle class.” The day before the election, former President Bill Clinton put in an appearance for Murphy to try to rally Democrats to the polls.

Murphy spent $5.3 million to Gibson’s $1.7 million. That was partially offset by Republican-leaning groups that spent $700,000 to help Gibson and Democratic-leaning groups that helped Murphy to the tune of $200,000. Murphy’s big cash advantage didn’t matter in the end. Gibson won 55%-45%. He carried every county except the district’s portion of Essex County in the north.