Biden's visit signals priority of today's vote

WASHINGTON — From his seat on Air Force Two, Vice President Joe Biden could have looked down at the north country Monday and seen symbols of the contentious race to replace former Rep. John M. McHugh in Congress.

As his C-40B followed the route of Interstate 81, Mr. Biden could have looked out the window and seen the Pierrepont Manor neighborhood of Mr. McHugh, whose ascension to Army secretary created the vacancy; the shoreline of Lake Ontario, where water-level issues loom large to residents but have barely been addressed by the two remaining candidates; and new training facilities and runway improvements at Fort Drum, built with the help of federal earmarks the Conservative candidate, Douglas L. Hoffman, has vowed to oppose if elected today.

In his visit to Watertown, Mr. Biden sought to connect himself with the north country's geography and politics — he recalled his days as a lifeguard at Sandy Pond during law school at Syracuse University, and he told a Watertown Daily Times reporter aboard his flight that one of his favorite Northern New York memories is the 1966 blizzard that buried the region when he was at Syracuse.

And he used a folksy, friendly tone to pitch Democrat William L. Owens as the best choice to advocate for the area's diverse interests and represent people from both sides of the political aisle.

"I have nothing but good memories about here," Mr. Biden told the crowd of supporters at the North Side Improvement League. "This is a place where people look out for each other."

Mr. Biden fit in the Watertown swing before an appearance in New York City, his staff leaving Washington before dawn to pick him up in Wilmington, Del., where he had spent the weekend at home.

As the vice president made the trip, updates on the New York 23rd Congressional District ran on CNN, broadcast throughout the plane. He spent the flight and the drive to the city tweaking his speech, a spokeswoman said. Passengers were served salad with grilled parmesan chicken, baklava and a roll with butter.

He left Wilmington at 8:40 a.m. and arrived at Wheeler-Sack Army Airfield at Fort Drum about 9:30 a.m., experiencing first-hand the expansive runway now capable of handling the Army's largest aircraft. His motorcade proceeded along routes 26 and 11 to Mill Street in the city, state police blocking all intersections to other traffic.

In making the trip to a congressional district that once barely registered with national political figures, Mr. Biden signaled the priority the White House has put on the contest. That attention has been especially sharp since conservative Republicans embraced the race as a referendum on President Obama, the liberal House Democratic leadership and what they see as a free-spending approach to governing in Washington.

Mr. Owens has tried to avoid the appearance of being a tool of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Mr. Biden appeared to try to help him. He portrayed the Democrat as rejecting sharp partisanship, and he appealed to "pragmatic Republicans" to vote for Mr. Owens and reject the Republican Party's sharp turn to the political right.

"We're not asking you to switch your party," Mr. Biden said.

"This has never been a place that embraced extremism on the left or the right," Mr. Biden said, tagging Republicans as extreme for abandoning their nominee, state Assemblywoman Dierdre K. Scozzafava, for following positions at odds with social conservatives.

"These notions are alien to everything I know about what Republicans and Democrats in upstate New York are like," Mr. Biden said.

He sounded Democrats' familiar theme about the failings of the Bush administration, and Mr. Biden's very appearance was aimed at bolstering Mr. Owens's connection with President Obama, who won the district with 52 percent of the vote. But he also appeared to take pains to speak well of Republicans, noting that members of the GOP were some of his close friends during a decadeslong Senate career and that former Rep. Richard Armey, R-Tex., who has backed Mr. Hoffman, is a "decent guy but represents such an alien view."

Even former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, pilloried in Democratic circles, was criticized only as someone whose views he does not share.