St. Lawrence voters voice disdain at negative tone of Congressional race

MASSENA — No matter what their political stripes, voters here were almost unanimous in their disgust with an extremely negative 23rd Congressional District race which had many voters heading to the polls saying they had no clear sense of what the candidates actually stood for.

James M. Ralston was frustrated with the race even after he left his polling place at the Beach Street Community Center in Massena.

"I never got to hear what anybody wanted, just what they thought was bad about the other candidates," he said. "There was so much negativity and all this focus on Fort Drum. But what does that mean for me? For Massena?"

Mr. Ralston said he got plenty of "robo-calls," or automated election messages, from Democrat William L. Owens, Conservative Douglas L. Hoffman and Republican Deidre K. Scozzafava prior to her departure from the race this weekend. He also got campaign mailers informing him of the evils of the opposition, but he said none of this gave him a clear sense of what the candidates felt about local issues and which of the candidates would serve his community best.

"I ended up going with Owens because there was just something about Hoffman I don't trust," he said. "It's been very frustrating."

Fred A. and Dianne "Bonnie" Conn of Massena said they were equally frustrated, but without a sense of which candidate would serve the district's interests the best, they both decided to go with Hoffman's conservative values.

"We weren't impressed at all with the campaigning," Mr. Conn said. "This was one of the most negative campaigns I've ever seen. You kept trying to find out what someone could do instead of what they thought the other ones couldn't do."

"There was not enough information on the issues that matter to people here," Mrs. Conn said.

Norfolk resident Ron A. Gladding was furious with the tone of the race.

"It was all mudslinging," he said. "It was ridiculous. I'm glad it's over because I'm sick and tired of the phone calls."

Voters such as Lisa S. Pease, Massena, said the mudslinging which eventually led to the departure of Ms. Scozzafava also eliminated the candidate many felt could have best represented their interests.

"I was deciding between Scozzafava and Owens," she said. "I didn't get a good feeling from Hoffman. I think you should say what you want to do and not try to shoot your opponents down."

Other voters were upset with Scozzafava's choice to throw her support to Owens after dropping out of the race over the weekend.

Darrell Jack Morgan, Norwood, said he voted for Hoffman because he was turned off by the Democratic Party's negative advertisements.

"I guess both parties had negative ads, but I've been hearing good things about Hoffman," he said. "I hope I'm right. God knows we need some changes down there."

Raymondville resident David L. Hartzog also struggled to make a choice and settled with Owens. He said the only thing Scozzafava and Hoffman accomplished in the race was convincing voters there was a war going on within the Republican party.

"As far as I can tell, Scozzafava voted with the Republicans 95 percent of the time, so she's obviously not a liberal," Mr. Hartzog said. "This guy (Hoffman) must be somewhere to the right of Attila the Hun. Seeing the Republican party tear itself apart for no good reason, I don't think it's done much good for anybody."

Ultimately, Mr. Hartzog said it was Owens's grasp of local issues that won his vote.

"He could actually answer questions about the area and knew things about this district," he said. "The other guy didn't know anything about local issues; he's just there as some sort of protest."