The White House is sending Vice President Joe Biden to upstate New York to campaign for Democrat Bill Owens in a last-minute push to help Democrats pick up the longtime Republican House seat.
The Biden rally will be taking place next Monday morning in Watertown.
“I’m honored to have the President and Vice President’s support," Owens said in a statement announcing the vice-presidential visit. "I am excited to welcome the Vice President to Watertown where we’ll discuss my plans to create jobs Upstate and my commitment to helping turn the page on the George Bush economic agenda.”
The Biden event comes the day before the special election, which has turned into a two-way contest between Owens and a third-party Conservative challenger, Doug Hoffman, who has captured the momentum in the race in the last several days.
It’s the second time Biden has campaigned for Owens – he went up to Syracuse in September to fundraise for him. And Obama headlined a New York City fundraiser for Owens last week.
For Owens to win, he needs to gin up the Democratic base in the upstate New York district to show up at the polls -- voters who don’t normally turn out for off-year elections.
The visit by Biden underlines how badly national Democrats want to snatch this seat, Republican-held since before the Civil War, from the GOP. But it also reflects Democrats' 11th-hour efforts to avoid a clean sweep Tuesday of the three mostly closely-watched races.
With Republicans almost certainly winning the Virginia gubernatorial contest and the New Jersey governor's race very much up in the air, the upstate New York congressional race may represent the party's best chance for victory.
Biden has become the go-to man in the administration for House Democrats, regularly headlining fundraisers for vulnerable incumbents. He also weighed in in the last special congressional race, taping a radio ad for Rep. Scott Murphy's campaign this past spring.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/scorecard/1009/Biden_campaigning_for_Owens_in_NY_23.html#
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