GOP targets two North Country Dems, not Rep. Owens — also some poll data!
Republicans have unveiled their target list for November’s midterm elections and two North Country Democrats are smack in the crosshairs.
Rep. Scott Murphy from Glens Falls (NY-20) and Rep. Mike Arcuri, who represents a slice of the region around Old Forge (NY-24) will be hit with national-buy advertisements.
As Politico reports, the “bulk of the Democrats in the crosshairs are vulnerable first-term legislators sitting in Republican-oriented seats.”
Notably absent from this attack list is NY-23, where Matt Doheny and Doug Hoffman are vying for the chance to challenge Rep. Bill Owens. They’ll need Washington support to prevail.
But the Republican establishment has largely scorned Hoffman, so the big money in Washington may be waiting to see who survives the primary next month before committing resources here.
(Despite the apparently pro-Republican environment, the GOP itself is cash-strapped, so they have to be highly selective. Democrats, meanwhile, are expected to counter in NY-20 and NY-23 with ad barrages of their own.
On another front, the conservative National Review has unveiled a couple of bits of poll data that give some insight into the Owens and Murphy races.
In both cases, the Democrats are leading narrowly, according to this survey — 5% for Murphy and 2% for Owens.
Here’s their copy verbatim:
New York 20: Despite challenger Chris Gibson having just 37 percent name recognition compared to Rep. Scott Murphy’s 91 percent name recognition, Murphy leads by a slim 45 to 40 percent margin.
New York 23: While challenger Matt Doheny has just 48 percent name recognition compared to Rep. Bill Owens’s 87 percent name recognition, Owens manages just a split of the vote with 41 percent to 39 percent for Doheny.
Both polls were conducted for a conservative group called American Action Forum.
Weirdly, the NY-23 survey doesn’t include or measure the popularity of Doug Hoffman. They simply write him out of the script.
Not sure what to make of that.
Tags: election10
It should be a felony for any national party, organization or any individual who doesn’t live in the area where an election is held to stick their big, fat noses into local politics.
I don’t care if it is Glen Beck or Obama, I wish people would mind their own business. Don’t they have a life to live? I guess it is this “let’s stick our nose into someone else’s business” so common in America today that has made us hated around the world.
I wonder if News Corp. will contribute to Doug Hoffman’s campaign.
pete klein,
Right on.
I kind of agree with Pete, but that’s part of the price you pay for living in a more or less free country.
Yes, Bret. More or less and we are being told, “Less is more.”