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Off-year elections can be notoriously unreliable as predictors of the future, but as a window on how the political landscape may have changed in the year since President Obama won the White House, Tuesday's Republican victories in Virginia and New Jersey delivered clear warnings for the Democrats. Neither gubernatorial election amounted to a referendum on the president, but the changing shape of the electorates in both states and the shifts among key constituencies revealed cracks in the Obama 2008 coalition and demonstrated that, at this point, Republicans have the more energized constituency heading into next year's midterm elections. The most...

Warren Buffett, the second richest man in the world and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.A), doesn't have much faith in the future of print media. In an interview on CNBC's Nov. 3 "Squawk Box," following the announcement of his purchase of Burlington Northern (NYSE:BNI), Buffett was asked to comment on the future of news media, in particular newspapers and business news by "Squawk Box" co-host Becky Quick. Buffett is optimistic on the future of business news. "Our system has just gotten started," Buffett said. "I mean, we've had a couple of hundred years of progress, but we have not exhausted...

America has changed, and you have helped. Although we did not succeed in winning this election, we have succeeded in making sure political parties and special interests no longer take the people for granted. I believe we have sent a powerful message and laid the groundwork for future conservative campaigns. I congratulate Bill Owens on a hard won victory. In our tradition of free elections, our country continues. And although Bill Owens has won, I believe America is turning the page to a new dawn. The ideas of freedom, sound fiscal management and citizen government have sprung back into our...

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SARANAC LAKE, N.Y. — Votes were being counted late into the night in a hard-fought contest between a staunch conservative and a moderate Democrat for New York State’s northernmost Congressional seat, leaving one of the biggest questions in politics unanswered.With 77 percent of precincts reporting, the Democrat, Bill Owens, had 49 percent of the vote, while the Conservative Party candidate, Douglas L. Hoffman, had 45 percent, a margin of fewer than 4,000 votes. Rob Ryan, a spokesman for Mr. Hoffman, said that a number of variables, including as many as 10,000 absentee ballots, could delay the results for days. “It’s...

Breaking News: Fox News Projects: Democrat Owens Wins Race for New York's 23rd Congressional District

Heard on MSNBC which prefers to discuss NY23 than the two STATE GOVERNORSHIPS.

<p>ALBANY, N.Y. - Democrat Bill Owens had an early lead in a special Congressional election in northern New York that grabbed national headlines in its final days as it highlighted divisions within the Republican Party.</p> <p>Owens led with 51.4 percent to 43.7 percent for Doug Hoffman, a member of New York's Conservative Party, with just 29 percent of precincts reporting in New York's 23rd House district.</p>

SARANC LAKE, N.Y. – The mood is getting darker at NY-23 Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman’s election party. Results from Jefferson County–Republican territory that John McCain carried–show Owens in the lead. And the Syracuse suburbs–Madison, Oswego, and Oneida County–are not showing the blowouts that early polling suggested. The first results from Oswego show Hoffman at 2800, Owens at 2000, and Scozzafava at 324. The final Siena poll had Hoffman leading Democrat Bill Owens by a margin of 51 percent to 28 percent in this region. I asked Hoffman’s spokesman Rob Ryan for a reaction, and he suggested that it was...

By David Weigel 11/3/09 10:50 PM SARANAC LAKE, N.Y. – I caught Watertown, N.Y., Mayor Jeff Graham, who endorsed NY-23 Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman this weekend, looking very glum at Doug Hoffman’s election party. I asked him what happened in Jefferson County, where Watertown is located, and where Democrat Bill Owens is leading the vote. “We lost,” said Graham. “The Scozzafava endorsement, the [Watertown Daily Times] endorsement of Owens–I mean, they roughed Hoffman up.” Could Hoffman still pull out a win? Graham grimaced. “It’s over.”

34% vote in.

NBC reverses Bloomberg call Wow: This is looking to be a very long night for the billionaire-incumben-frontrunner in New York. With more than a third of the votes in, it's a one-point race. NBC called it for Bloomberg -- but just reversed that call. The New York Times continues to indicate that Bloomberg has won.

BNO News: Independent candidate Michael Bloomberg re-elected as Mayor of New York City, defeating Democrat Bill Thompson.

First returns, Clinton Co: Owens 103 Scozzafava 8 Hoffman 340

Does anyone out there from Brooklyn, NY, know of a ride or have a ride to the Bachmann rally? seeknosy@yahoo.com

Currently, the constitution allows prisoners to perform work for governmental agencies during their prison sentence, but the amendment would allow them to volunteer for religious, charitable and educational groups as well. Letting inmates work for non-profits was common practice for jails across the state until the state Commission of Correction determined it was unconstitutional about three years ago, state Sheriffs' Association Counsel Thomas Mitchell said. The nonprofit work could be used as an incentive for good behavior.

NEW YORK - As soon as Mebrahtom Keflezighi , better known as Meb, won the New York City Marathon on Sunday, an uncommon sports dispute erupted online, fraught with racial and nationalistic components: Should Keflezighi’s triumph count as an American victory? He was widely celebrated as the first American to win the New York race since 1982. Having immigrated to the United States at age 12, he is an American citizen and a product of American distance running programs at the youth, college and professional levels. But, some said, because he was born in Eritrea, he is not really an...

Dear Friends, I pulled this twit from Doug Hoffman's Campaign facebook page: Tweet, Facebook, text, IM, make calls -- but get out the vote. Let the voice of the people, not the Pelosis be heard. #tcot LETS GET GOING AND Make some GOTV calls for him, and other buzz on the webb to help keep Mr. Hoffman's momentum gong..! The same can be said for Mr. Christie up in New Jersey as well..(and Harmer in CA 10), McDonnell.

A Hoffman staffer tells NRO that a Hoffman supporter had his tires slashed this afternoon near United Methodist Church on Beakman Street in Plattsburgh. A police report has been filed.

And Romney was nowhere to be seen. BY BRENDAN MINITER Amidst the stunning events in New York's 23rd congressional district -- with Republican-turned-independent Doug Hoffman suddenly surging to the front and likely to win today's race -- collateral damage has been suffered by some of the GOP's presidential hopefuls who misread the race and the mood of the Republican electorate. Mitt Romney -- formerly a man who seemed willing to show up and plug for any Republican anywhere to pick up a few chits -- was nowhere to be seen in the district. Mike Huckabee, a favorite for religious conservatives...

Is what's going on in New York's 23rd Congressional District a GOP civil war or not? If you ask me, it's not. The media and their friends on the left, including White House adviser Valerie Jarrett on ABC News, are doing their best to turn Dede Scozzafava's withdrawal from the race and endorsement of her Democratic opponent into another example of Republican feuding over "litmus tests." They just can't help themselves. In fact, Jarrett calls Republicans "more and more extreme," yet it's the liberals who have worked themselves into a hissy fit of angry rhetoric. Take a look at Frank...

Want more evidence print media is giving way to digital formats? According to CNBC "Squawk on the Street" Nov. 3, Internet behemoth Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) could have its sights set on The New York Times (NYSE:NYT). Brian Shactman, a general assignment reporter for CNBC noted an article in the Nov. 2 Wall Street Journal that indicated a lot of big companies are hoarding cash and short term investments and it pointed out the information technology sector had nearly $280 billion to invest. ...more (w/video)...

In what could be a nightmare scenario for Republican Party officials, conservative activists are gearing up to challenge leading GOP candidates in more than a dozen key House and Senate races in 2010. Conservatives and tea party activists had already set their sights on some of the GOP’s top Senate recruits — a list that includes Gov. Charlie Crist in Florida, former Rep. Rob Simmons in Connecticut and Rep. Mark Kirk in Illinois, among others. But their success in Tuesday’s upstate New York special election, where grass-roots efforts pushed GOP nominee Dede Scozzafava to drop out of the race and...

When Dede Scozzafava votes today, she will see her name on the Republican line for the 23rd Congressional District. She plans to pull the lever for her Democratic opponent, then take the rest of the day off to do laundry and take care of other chores she ignored in the last two months of debating and defending her candidacy. Scozzafava quit the race three days before the election and threw her support behind the Democrat, Bill Owens. Scozzafava had been elected as a pro-choice Republican to be mayor of Gouverneur and member of the New York state Assembly. Suddenly, she...

Election laws usually prohibit campaigning within a certain distance from a polling location on Election Day. Usually, all it takes is a word to the precinct judges to get violations from overeager campaigners straightened out. Democrats in NY-23’s special election called the cops, as the New York Daily News’ Elizabeth Benjamin reports: I just got off the phone with former state Democratic Chairwoman June O’Neill, who informed me the police had been called to at least two polling sites in St. Lawrence County due to overzealous electioneering (O’Neill called it “voter intimidation”) by Doug Hoffman supporters.

Doug Hoffman for CongressDear friends, Today is Election Day. We have fought long and hard to get here. All our efforts now come down to making sure that our supporters vote. I'm running for Congress because I sense the America I love is being taken away from us. I want to tell Washington : No more bailouts. No more taxes. No more trillion dollar deficits. That's what I'm fighting for, and I know that’s what you’ve been fighting for too. Let’s make sure that our fight bears fruit. Let’s make sure all our supporters vote today. My opponent is a...

Follow those races here. Report turnout, exit polls etc. as they happen..

The willingness of MSNBC on-air commentators to engage in political hackery for the Democratic Party knows no boundaries - as indicated by the latest charged hurled at former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Keith Olbermann, host of MSNBC's "Countdown," who once called conservative blogger Michelle Malkin, "big mashed up bag of meat with lipstick," almost on a nightly basis attacks Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., and has also regularly drubbed Palin, is now charging her with sexism. On his Nov. 2 broadcast, Olbermann accused Palin of forcing former GOP congressional candidate Dede Scozzafava out of the race for New York's 23rd Congressional...

New York beef manufacturer Fairbanks Farms has issued a voluntary recall of a little more than half a million pounds of ground beef. The recall, which affects states from Maine to North Carolina -- Maryland included -- comes after one person died in New Hampshire and people were sickened in other states after eating beef thought to be contaminated by the bacteria E.coli. The products, which include ground beef, meatloaf and meatball mix, carry sell-by dates from Sept. 19-28 and were sold under such brands as Trader Joe's Butcher Shop Fine Quality Meats, Giant Meatloaf & Meatball Mix and BJ's...

Hoffman's supporters stage big rallyDouglas L. Hoffman's first congressional campaign stop in Watertown had more campaign staff — three — than attendees. Three months later, the Conservative Party candidate in the 23rd Congressional District race was a bigger draw here than the vice president of the United States. Mr. Hoffman's raucous rally Monday at the Jefferson County Agricultural Society Exhibition Hall drew more than 300 and featured speeches by former U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson and a soundtrack by country music star John Rich. Mr. Thompson, revered in conservative circles, wasted no time reminding the crowd of what was at stake...

I will vote here in Pennsylvania in spite of many lousy choices on my state and local ballot today, but I want to encourage people in other places to get out and vote. I am enthusiatically cheering on the Conservative Party candidate in New York, Doug Hoffman. A victory for Doug Hoffman today in New York 23 is a win for the Conservative Party, not the Republican Party. RNC friendly spinners may tell a different story on television tonight, but for a Conservative Party candidate to force out the Republican candidate and maybe get over 50 percent of the vote...

A last-minute poll of New York's suddenly significant 23rd District interim House race shows that with less than 12 hours before voting begins, the Conservative/Republican candidate Doug Hoffman has built a 5-point lead over Democrat Bill Owens. But the newfound allies of Hoffman and the Republican National Committee had best hold off on the champagne purchases. The undecided voters there have doubled to nearly 1 in 5, making the final hours volatile. snip The symbolism comes in two forms: It's seen as a microscopic referendum on the Obama-Biden spending agenda.

New York Republican congressional nominee Dede Scozzafava withdrew last weekend from the special election that will take place Tuesday and endorsed the Democrat, Bill Owens, in a race where a third party candidate, Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman, has become a major contender. Yes, you read that right. In one of the most Republican districts in New York, one that borders Canada, Scozzafava ran up against a mass revolt by mainstream Republicans who charged that her long list of liberal credentials made her a “RINO” or Republican In Name Only. The 23rd congressional district race is this year's only congressional...

While praising Democratic Congressional candidate William L. Owens as a man of values, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. took shots at supporters of Mr. Owens’s opponent during a campaign appearance Monday in Watertown. Appearing at the North Side Improvement League on Mill Street, Mr. Biden claimed Conservative candidate Douglas L. Hoffman was “handpicked” by radio host Rush Limbaugh as successor to Army Secretary John M. McHugh. Mr. Biden said Mr. Hoffman’s views are consistent with those of Mr. Limbaugh, former House Majority Leader Dick Armey and former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who he lumped together...

Native New Yorker Marie King loves the Big Apple and always will, but she had to head south with her 16-year-old son, Michael, to pursue her goal of owning a home.   King, 52, a retired NYPD detective and single mom, left her rental in the leafy Pelham Bay section of The Bronx to own her own place in St. Petersburg, Fla.  The Post reached out to ex-New Yorkers after an Empire Center for NY State Policy study found that a whopping 1.5 million residents abandoned the state from 2000 to 2008 -- most from New York City.King and other refugees...

There’s not much time left, but Vice President Joe Biden traveled to Watertown, N.Y., to try to build support for Democrat Bill Owens in the roller-coaster congressional contest in upstate New York. “We’re not asking you to switch your party,” Biden said in an appeal to centrist Republicans who supported Dede Scozzafava, the GOP candidate who withdrew from the race on Saturday amid flagging poll numbers and criticism from prominent conservatives for being too liberal. “We’re just saying, join us in teaching a lesson to absolutists who come and tell us that no dissent is permitted within their own party.”

Doug Hoffman for Congress   Election Countdown!     The most exciting election this year will be over in a little more than 24 hours! Every day has brought about new twists and turns, but tomorrow is when the rubber hits the road. We must turn out our vote!  Joe Biden was in Watertown telling his half empty room that it’s time to teach conservatives a lesson! [see story below] Apparently he doesn’t like it when we voice concern about the direction of our country.  Tomorrow let our voice be heard through the ballot box!  It is critical that...

The GOP is counting on a few wins tomorrow after four years of losing. And futures market traders seem to favor them. At the Intrade futures market, they sell contracts that depend on election outcomes. If a candidate wins, his contract pays $100. If he loses, it becomes worthless. In the weeks leading up to an election, contracts are bought and sold between market participants, and the going price offers an indication of how the market views the race. In 2004, Intrade participants correctly predicted every state's presidential outcome. In 2008, they predicted them all correctly except for Indiana, which...

If you suspect problems at the polls e-mail: Voterfraud@Foxnews.com ------- It is "very easy" to steal an election using absentee ballots, claims Jan Tyler, a former Denver Elections Commissioner who now runs the website National Election Reform Examiner. She said some people shoveling her driveway, for example, told her they knew that "six or seven absentee ballots were sent to dead people," and she fears the numbers across the country could be much larger than experts believe and that prosecutors do not take infractions seriously enough. Fox News has found ongoing allegations of absentee ballot fraud in at least a...

Election '09: The true colors of Republicans who act like Democrats and Democrats who act to silence real opposition became visible over the weekend. The principles of freedom are under siege on multiple fronts. You have to be pretty deeply immersed in the cesspool already to come up with a term like "tea party drag" to describe grass-roots activists who fear that America is descending into bankruptcy and depravity. Yet, that was how New York Times columnist Frank Rich this week described the right's refusal to lie down and play dead as the Democratic Party tries to turn the U.S....

New York Republicans got a rock in their trick-or-treat bags over the Halloween weekend, as Dede Scozzafava ripped off her million-dollar Republican mask and revealed herself to be a Democrat. It was never a very good disguise, but every previous attempt to peer beneath it was punished with stern lectures from Newt Gingrich and the rest of the party establishment. The bags of contributor money Republicans handed to the Scozzafava campaign would have been more usefully spent hiring detectives to trail ACORN operatives, and keep Democrat voter fraud down to manageable levels. The Scozzafava campaign is the latest dreadful mistake...

Should this be a SUPRISE? UPDATE: Well I take back everything I said. Scozzafava today threw her support to the Democratic candedate Owens. “I am supporting Bill Owens for Congress and urge you to do the same,” she said. “In Bill Owens, I see a sense of duty and integrity that will guide him beyond political partisanship. He will be an independent voice devoted to doing what is right for New York. Bill understands this district and its people, and when he represents us in Congress he will put our interests first.”

Biden Talks Lifeguarding, Global Warming, and GOP Extremism Before 200 Dems in NY-23 Watertown, N.Y. At rally for Democratic congressional candidate Bill Owens this morning, Vice President Joe Biden attacked conservative Doug Hoffman as the lackey of national conservatives, whom Biden blamed for causing this "God awful recession." It's hard to imagine Hoffman being able "to take issue with any issue Rush Limbaugh took. I'm being serious about this. I'm being deadly honest about it," Biden said. "I surely know what they're against, but I don't know what they're for," he said later of Republicans and Hoffman, "but I suspect...

I arrived here in Watertown, NY about an hour ago. There is lots of energy as the campaign enters the final stretch. Bob Adney, field director for Hoffman for Congress greeted me as I came in and immediately asked me to go to work at the phone bank. Here in Watertown they have over 40 phone lines humming. Starting this evening, John Rich and Fred and Jeri Thompson will be holding a rally here. I will update you all as it happens. While here I met a fellow named Robert Stacy McCain, you may have heard of him, and we...

Last week, Bill O’Reilly had me on The Factor to talk about the health care bills. He correctly pointed out that a public plan might obliterate private alternatives. But I was puzzled by the reason he gave: " A taxpayer funded company would have a huge advantage because profit motive is nonexistent." I understand the logic. Last quarter, insurance companies averaged a 2% profit... In theory, a non-profit government insurance company would be able sell insurance for 2% less... But that’s not how the economics work out in real life. The quest for profit actually lowers costs. In categories where...

A New York City imam accused of tipping off a suspected al Qaeda-trained militant that he was under investigation pleaded not guilty on Monday to lying to the FBI. Ahmad Wais Afzali was arrested in September as part of a probe in which federal prosecutors allege the prime suspect, Najibullah Zazi, was planning to set off bombs in the United States. Attorney General Eric Holder has called the purported Zazi plot one of the most serious security threats to the United States since the attacks of September 11, 2001, saying it could have killed "scores" of Americans had it been...

So Sarah Palin has started endorsing candidates, by boosting conservative Doug Hoffman for an upstate New York congressional seat in tomorrow’s elections. Maybe she should make that a regular practice. Endorsements matter, despite what the chattering heads say on cable news. And multiple Palin stamps of approval could be good for the recipients, the Republican Party, and ex-Governor Palin herself. Plus, the ads would be fantastic. Decoder can see one now: “Hi, I’m Sarah Palin, Brander of MavericksTM. I’ve taken time from my busy schedule here in Alaska because it’s important you know that [CANDIDATE NAME] is a maverick, just...

for a penny, in for a pound — or in for a robocall, as evidenced by Dede Scozzafava’s latest effort to support Democrat Bill Owens. which was released by Owens’ campaign. Script: “Hi, this is Dede Scozzafava calling on behalf of Bill Owens. And I wanted to let you know that I am supporting Bill for Congress. “Since beginning my campaign I have said that this election is not about me, it’s about the people of this district. It’s not in the cards for me to be your representative but I strongly believe Bill Owens is the only candidate who...

Response to Vice President Biden's Comments Today About My Position On Energy Independence Today at 10:12am As the vice president knows, I have always advocated an all-of-the-above approach to American energy independence. Among other things, my alternative energy goal for Alaska sits at 50 percent because Alaska reached more than 20 percent during my term in office. The Obama-Biden administration, on the other hand, recently announced a renewable goal of only 25 percent. However, domestic drilling should remain a top priority in order to meet America’s consumption and security needs. The vice president’s extreme opposition to domestic energy development goes...

Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., stumping here Monday for the Democratic candidate in a special House race that has attracted national attention, tried to capitalize on infighting among Republicans over the race by calling on moderate members of the party to "join us in teaching a lesson to those absolutists." "They may not have any room for moderate views in the Republican Party upstate anymore, but let me assure you: We have room," said Mr. Biden, said at a pre-Election Day rally for Democrat Bill Owens.