Hurdles aplenty for Dem's candidate
William L. Owens doesn't have history on his side.
The congressional candidate doesn't live where the majority of people vote. And he doesn't belong to a major party.
The Democratic nominee for the 23rd Congressional District seat sounded undaunted about it all Tuesday, expressing confidence the voters would be focused more on his message.
"Everyone has the same issues on their mind," said the Plattsburgh attorney. "They're concerned about jobs, health care. They're concerned about the deficit. Once my message is out that I'm a person that's involved in creating jobs, that I'm not a career politician, that I'm not involved in the Albany establishment, I think people are going to look to me to get done what they need done in their communities."
Mark Bellardini considers himself among those converted. The St. Lawrence County Democratic chairman and his 10 fellow county chairpersons all voted for Mr. Owens, a political independent, on the first ballot Monday.
"His ability to support the rank and file of this district is what won their hearts," said the chairman. "The worries of the people is what I spoke for. He answered me and I felt he was answering the problems of the people of this district. We're falling off the edge of the planet here. We need help. We need someone who is going to take this seriously."
Mr. Owens said he was "heavily involved" in the creation of the Plattsburgh Airbase Redevelopment Corp., which recruited companies to set up shop in the town's decommissioned Air Force base.
"There are more jobs in that base now than there were prior to that base closing," said Sean M. Hennessey, Jefferson County Democratic chairman. "That sends a clear message to those in Jefferson County that he knows how to grow a job base and take us to places that maybe we haven't been before."
Oswego County Democratic Chairman William W. Scriber saw the same promise in Mr. Owens, saying the county needed someone with his background to reverse its rising unemployment.
"We could use his ideas and his experience to help us," said Mr. Scriber.
The chairman aims to help Mr. Owens take his home county because, "if you don't win Oswego County, you cannot win the 23rd Congressional District," he said.
It may be a tall task.
Dierdre K. Scozzafava, the Republican nominee, represents part of Oswego in the state Assembly. Oswego cast more votes than any other county for Democrat Michael P. Oot during last year's congressional election. But Mr. Oot was still beat nearly 2-to-1 in that county by Rep. John M. McHugh, R-Pierrepont Manor.
A Democratic congressman hasn't represented Oswego County since 1948. And, according to research done by The Albany Project blog, 62 percent of the district's population lives in an area that has not elected a Democratic congressman since at least 1890.
Democrats do have one recent success in a federal race: President Barack Obama received more votes in the district than his Republican opponent, John McCain, despite the GOP holding a registration advantage of 47,615 people.
Mr. Owens didn't discuss history.
The candidate said he asked the Democrats for their nomination because his principles aligned most closely with the party's platform and "that's where the ideas are coming from and that's where the energy is coming from."
It may also be where the money is coming from.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is assisting Mr. Owens as he builds his team, but the candidate refused to say how much money has been promised or how much he'll personally commit. The attorney would neither confirm nor deny that he could fund the entire campaign himself, as some media reports have suggested.
Mr. Owens's campaign is only one day old, so he does not have a campaign manager, a campaign Web site, an organized fundraising effort or a scheduled trip to Jefferson, St. Lawrence or Lewis counties.
"We're working on that now, developing a schedule," he said, before adding: "The goal here is to run a positive campaign that is focused on the issues and that gets across the message that we're about creating jobs."
The race now has its candidates: Mr. Owens, Ms. Scozzafava and Conservative candidate Douglas L. Hoffman, a Lake Placid accountant.
But a special election has not been called because Mr. McHugh has not left his post. The Republican, who was nominated by Mr. Obama to be the next Army secretary, is expected to be confirmed soon by the U.S. Senate.
