NY-23 Race is warming up
If and when Republican Congressman John McHugh is confirmed by the US Senate to be Obama’s Secretary of the Army, there will be a hotly contested race to replace him as the federal representative for the Adirondacks and Northern New York. One name that is consistently mentioned as a possible candidate is moderate Republican Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava. Given her relatively liberal voting record, she is even being scouted by some to run as a Democrat.
But it appears that she is going full-speed-ahead with her candidacy as a Republican. She has hired a major fundraiser who helped Jim Tedisco raise well over a million dollars in the period of a few months.
Ms. Scozzafava, a Republican state assemblywoman from Gouverneur, has told supporters she will be aggressively seeking her party’s nomination for the 23rd Congressional District seat if there is a special election. John M. McHugh, the current post holder, will resign if he’s confirmed as Army secretary this summer.
The district’s 11 Republican committee chairmen haven’t picked a candidate yet. But they know the race will take millions of dollars to win, so Mr. Decker’s role as fundraising chairman could make Ms. Scozzafava an even more attractive candidate.
If nominated, Scozzafava would be a formidable candidate. No major elected official have formally announced their candidacy due to the fact that McHugh is still in Congress, but there are many people waiting in the wings and the backroom discussions are already taking place.
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There’s been some buzz going around about the possibility of talking June O’Neill into being the candidate. She’s relatively well known, has loads of elected experience in the area, and certainly has all the connections she’d need to get a lot of fundraisers going fast.