{"id":6363,"date":"2012-08-02T14:15:31","date_gmt":"2012-08-02T18:15:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=6363"},"modified":"2012-08-02T08:30:57","modified_gmt":"2012-08-02T12:30:57","slug":"100-day-sprint-owens-votes-with-gop-on-taxes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2012\/08\/02\/100-day-sprint-owens-votes-with-gop-on-taxes\/","title":{"rendered":"100 Day Sprint: Owens votes with GOP on taxes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nationwide, just 19 Democrats voted with House Republicans to maintain Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans — a policy that Democratic President Barack Obama opposes.<\/p>\n

One of those Dems was North Country congressman Bill Owens, from Plattsburgh, who is scrambling to fend off a challenge from Republican Matt Doheny.<\/p>\n

The left-of-center on-line magazine Salon chided Dems<\/a> who broke ranks on the issue, but noted that Owens is fighting for his political life:<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0Finally, Republicans are getting a clean shot at Owens, who won his seat in New York\u2019s North Country in a memorable 2009 special election. In that race and in \u201910, Owens was boosted by the presence of a credible third candidate, Doug Hoffman, running on the Conservative Party line. That won\u2019t be the case this time around.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Doheny campaign’s Jude Seymour issued a statement suggesting that Owens had flip-flopped on the tax issue:<\/p>\n

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“Which Bill Owens can you believe? This spring, he voted for a House Democratic budget that included tax hikes on job creators. Today, he flipped and adopted the opposite position.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But this issue gets at one of the challenges the Doheny camp faces:\u00a0 Owens’ relatively centrist voting record.<\/p>\n

Owens did vote for “Obamacare,” but he has often broken ranks with his party, including a vote in late June to censure Attorney General Eric Holder over the “Fast and Furious” gun smuggling case.<\/p>\n

Owens also voted in late July in favor of a deregulation measure supported by just a dozen other Democrats around the U.S.<\/p>\n

Owens also has strong marks from the NRA.<\/p>\n

Doheny’s camp has worked hard to suggest that Owens is still too far liberal for the Republican-leaning NY-21 district. But Doheny has to find a way to tell that story without making himself sound too far-right for the North Country.<\/p>\n

Can the GOP find that narrative?\u00a0 The next three months will tell.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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