Full court press

First came the news yesterday that President Obama will headline a $4,800 a plate fundraiser in Manhattan for Democratic candidate Bill Owens.

Now this afternoon, former President Bill Clinton lends Owens his Democratic star power with an e-mailed fundraising push (via the DCCC, of course). He calls the 23rd Congressional race “a referendum” on Obama’s agenda and makes it sound urgent…

Our top strategists just briefed me on this race. They said that Bill needs to raise $83,000 before Friday to stay on the air combating the more than $500K Republicans have already spent attacking him.

Meanwhile, as has become characteristic of this topsy-turvy campaign, Republican Dede Scozzafava is ringing up the union endorsements: the central New York United Auto Workers, the Plattsburgh-Saranac Lake Building and Construction Trades Council, and today, the Jefferson-Lewis-St. Lawrence Central Trades and Labor Council. (Boy, don’t these labor folks have a penchant for the catchy titles?)

These are big endorsements for the Republican, and they often go to Democrats. But Scozzafava’s been friendly with labor her entire political career. It doesn’t hurt that her husband, Ron McDougall, is president of the last of those three labor councils.