If this is your district:


Then your congressman is this guy:


This is his position regarding the healthcare bill:

Quote :

"Congressman-elect Bill Owens was sworn in at noon today.Owens indicated in a press release released shortly afterwards that he was now in favor of the the "Affordable Healthcare for America Act" bill in direct contrast to his earlier position during the election campaign.According to Politico.com, Mr. Owens assured voters that he felt the public option had no place in the health care reform bill. Contrary to that position, Mr. Owens now indicates that he intends to vote in favor of the bill even though it now contains a public option.UPDATED: A spokesman for Congressman Owens indicated correctly that Mr. Owens had recanted his solid position against public option later in the campaign, clarifying that he did not wish public option to be a 'litmus test' for the Health Reform bill and that on Oct. 30th, several days prior to the election, in a debate had stated that he generally supported the public option as it was now written (at that time.)"

http://www.gouverneurtimes.com/ (tried to link to full story and couldn't load.)

Looks like someone is going to lose in 2010. This Owens guy switched positions faster than the President or the Kama Sutra.

11/7/2009 9:59:22 AM

if you're trying to make a funny quip, just pick one metaphor and go all out.... No need to go half-assed and weakly combine two of them

11/7/2009 12:32:18 PM

he switched positions faster than kdawg(c) trying to make a joke

11/7/2009 12:33:36 PM

Perhaps he was referring to the President performing Kama Sutra on his wife.


Seriously though, this is simultaneously ridiculous and completely expected.

[Edited on November 7, 2009 at 1:18 PM. Reason : do politicians breed or are they manufactured in pods?]

11/7/2009 1:17:51 PM

so in your quoted article, it says that he clearly said that he supported the public option before the election. so what's the complaint?

11/7/2009 1:41:56 PM

I suppose the prudent question would be who here on TWW actually lives in that district? If the answer is no one, then it's fairly irrelevant. For those of us playing along at home, however, the amusement was garnered from watching the GOP tear itself asunder only to fail miserably.

11/7/2009 2:59:39 PM

He changed his mind and told people so during the campaign.

What's wrong with that?

11/7/2009 6:38:08 PM

presumably nothing, as long as he didn't "change his mind" for political expediency.

more than likely, he knew that pelosi was gonna hammer his ass, so he figured he'd go ahead and get the flip-flop out of the way. Once he saw that he was running against a RINO, he knew he could do whatever the fuck he wanted to do.

[Edited on November 7, 2009 at 7:00 PM. Reason : ]

11/7/2009 6:58:33 PM

Quote :

"Once he saw that he was running against a RINO, he knew he could do whatever the fuck he wanted to do. "

are you referring to the guy in the CONSERVATIVE party? or the person that ended up dropping out and endorsing owens?

11/7/2009 8:26:08 PM

the chic. duh

11/7/2009 8:29:57 PM

wtf do you think RINO means? dumbass. and you pretend to be able to even discuss things in TSB? dumbass.

11/7/2009 8:50:30 PM

^^then explain what the hell you mean?

it would seem that right-wing nutball he ended up beating was the reason he won. not the republican. the district is traditionally republican. but they're not stupid enough to elect a carpetbagger / glenn beck sycophant

11/7/2009 10:30:24 PM

what the hell are you talking about? I called the woman a RINO because that's what she was. She dropped out of the race and endorsed the Democrat. Yeah, that's a fucking RINO. Who gives a crap why he won?

BTW, how in the hell could a guy IN THE NORTH be a "carpetbagger." Do you have ANY idea what that term means?

11/7/2009 11:13:05 PM

Eh, despite the root of the phrase, carpetbagger is commonly used today to refer to anyone who runs for office and isn't originally from the area or established long in the area. No real distinction between locations...

Hilary Clinton was certainly called a carpetbagger... Don't know where that came from trying to describe Hoffman. If I'm not mistaken he was born and raised in the Adirondacks...

[Edited on November 8, 2009 at 11:12 AM. Reason : x]

11/8/2009 11:11:29 AM

It's important to note that he did live in the district before the lines were redrawn, but still, the attempt at office was so cynical and opportunistic that "carpetbagger" definitely applies despite the fact that he resides very close to D23.

I mean, he didn't even try to pretend like he gave a shit about local issues.

11/8/2009 11:59:33 AM

umm.... by cynical and opportunistic, do you mean that he saw he had a chance to win and so he ran? I guess that makes the term carpetbagger completely meaningless. gg.

11/8/2009 12:01:01 PM

?

Uhh, he doesn't live in the district in which he ran. That's what immediately qualifies him as a technical carpetbagger.

Somebody can make the argument that he lived very close to the district and actually used to live in the district so maybe he's not that big of a carpetbagger...

But since his run for office was exceptionally opportunistic, we start getting back into carpetbagger territory.

Quote :

"carpetbagger: any opportunistic or exploitive outsider"

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/carpetbagger

And then getting back to his lack of district residency, we see his answers (non-answers) to questions by a local newspaper and discover he really isn't interested in local issues. He is an outsider.

So you can legitimately perceive and describe him as a carpetbagger by several standards.

11/8/2009 12:11:56 PM

using that same argument, one could make the case that Obama is a carpetbagger

11/8/2009 12:13:14 PM

Yeah, some people have called Obama a carpetbagger.

Words are funny, huh.

11/8/2009 12:18:22 PM

Quote :

"more than likely, he knew that pelosi was gonna hammer his ass, so he figured he'd go ahead and get the flip-flop out of the way. Once he saw that he was running against a RINO, he knew he could do whatever the fuck he wanted to do."

this statement still doesn't make any sense to me. i understand that you consider the republican a RINO because she was moderate. i understood that from the beginning. what i don't understand is how that allowed owens to do what he wanted. scozzafava would have likely won easily if hoffman hadn't run in the general -- as every other republican had for the previous 150 years. so i don't see what her being a RINO had to with anything.

11/8/2009 12:21:07 PM

being a moderate doesn't make her a RINO. supporting practically everything the democrats call for is what makes her a moderate. Thus, this guy knew that he had no competition. That's the whole point. The only reason he even had to sweat a little is cause of a last minute surge by the teabaggers

11/8/2009 3:02:05 PM

I don't think you understand. Scozzafava was set to win, and Bill Owens was set to lose. The people always vote in Republicans. It wasn't until Hoffman entered the race and Scozzafava dropped out that Owens even had a chance. It was Hoffman running that gave Owens a chance, not the fact that Scozzafava leaned left on some issues.

While the area is solidly Republican and conservative, the people are a little more sophisticated when it comes to social issues than Sarah Palin would like them to be. Scozzafava was anti-taxes and pro-guns...the fact that she was pro-choice and pro-gay marriage didn't matter...she was still going to get elected.

11/8/2009 4:02:43 PM

Quote :

"supporting practically everything the democrats call for is what makes her a moderate"

I'm assuming you mean RINO, making this an absolutely bullshit statement.

11/8/2009 4:12:50 PM

the reason owens won is that hoffman was so far to the right that republicans ended up voting for the democrat to keep a psycho from being elected.

11/8/2009 4:55:48 PM

what are previous stats for dem. vs. republican in that district? curious to see how the margin of victory shifted.

11/8/2009 4:58:50 PM

republicans have gotten 60%+ since 1996

11/8/2009 5:02:34 PM

http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/14/live-blogging-primary-night/

Quote :

"Another Three-Way Race in NY-23? Douglas L. Hoffman lost a wild special election in New York's 23rd Congressional district last November as the Conservative Party's nominee, after the moderate Republican, Dede Scozzafava, dropped out, and endorsed the eventual victor, Bill Owens, a Democrat. Tonight, Mr. Hoffman lost the Republican primary in the 23rd district: it has been called for his opponent Matthew Doheny, who leads 53-47 so far. But Mr. Hoffman will again appear on the Conservative Party's ballot line, having been the lone candidate vying for that distinction. That moves Mr. Owens, whom we had pegged as a 70 percent favorite in a two-way race against Mr. Hoffman, into a potentially more robust position."

Doing it again eh?

9/15/2010 2:25:58 AM

shouldn't the voters be able to recall him or do a revote when a politician flips so quickly such as this?

Couldn't this be construed as fraud? He presented himself to be one way, but was in fact completely lying to obtain public office. How is that legal?

(not speaking just literally about him, but about all politicians who lie to voters so they can get voted into office)

9/15/2010 8:46:44 AM

Once upon a time I worked in the Adirondacks as a Camp Counselor. That region is indeed solidly Republican, but these are New-England Republicans. They like freedoms and guns, but they're not particularly religious or close-minded.

9/15/2010 8:50:04 AM

If you're talking about Owens, that was last year and he didn't switch after the elections; he changed his position publicly during the campaign. The article states as much.

9/15/2010 8:51:51 AM

District 23 has a severe case of gerrymandering

9/15/2010 9:05:16 AM

you should see the 12th district in NC, lol...

9/15/2010 9:28:26 PM