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The 2009 special election for the 20th congressional district of New York was held on March 31, 2009, to fill the vacancy created in January 2009 when the district's representative, Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand, was appointed US senator from New York, replacing Hillary Clinton, who had been appointed Secretary of State in the Obama administration. The two major-party candidates were Democrat Scott Murphy, a private businessman, and Republican Jim Tedisco, the minority leader of the New York State Assembly. A third-party candidate, Libertarian Eric Sundwall, was initially included in the race, but later removed from the ballot. The 20th district has historically been conservative, and early polls favored Tedisco, but by February 2009 the race was considered a toss-up. The Republican Party considered the election to be a referendum on President Obama's economic policy and as such, injected significant funding into Tedisco's campaign, using well-known Republicans such as former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, Congressional Minority Leader John Boehner, and former New York Governor George Pataki for support. Democrats used Senator Gillibrand, Vice President Joe Biden, and an endorsement from President Barack Obama to support the Murphy campaign. Major issues brought up during the campaign were the candidates' positions on President Obama's stimulus plan, which Tedisco did not take a stance on until late in the race. Murphy supported it while Tedisco eventually opposed it. Tedisco portrayed Murphy's support of the plan as a potential cause of the AIG bonus scandal. Tedisco's campaign also brought up Murphy's failure to pay taxes on a company he founded in the 1990s. A frequent Murphy talking point was that Tedisco's primary residence was not in the Congressional district. The race was so close that one early vote count had the candidates tied at 77,225 votes each. Absentee ballots decided the election; ballots were accepted until April 13. While Tedisco had been ahead in early counts, by April 10 Murphy was leading, and by April 23 Murphy had a 401-vote advantage. Tedisco conceded the race the following day, and Murphy was sworn in on April 29. Democratic electoral successes in November 2008 and Murphy's clear support of the stimulus package were credited for his success. ==Background== (詳細はColumbia, Dutchess, Delaware, Essex, Greene, Otsego, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Warren, and Washington counties. Traditionally conservative, it had been considered a safe seat for Republicans until Blue Dog Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand defeated incumbent John E. Sweeney in the 2006 election. In November 2008, the Republican Party held an enrollment advantage of 70,632 registered voters across the district, down from a 93,337-voter advantage when the district lines were drawn by the New York State Legislature in 2002. Although Republican George W. Bush carried the district by an eight-point margin in the 2004 presidential election, Democrat Barack Obama won the district in 2008 by a three-point margin, or approximately 10,000 votes of over 330,000 cast. Gillibrand was reelected in 2008 by 24 points, a fourfold increase over her 2006 margin.〔 One of Barack Obama's first decisions as president-elect was to appoint Hillary Clinton, US Senator from New York and former Democratic presidential primary opponent, as Secretary of State; Clinton resigned her Senate seat to take the position. The district's seat became vacant in January 2009 when Governor David Paterson appointed Gillibrand to the United States Senate to replace Clinton.〔 On February 23, 2009, Governor Paterson issued a proclamation setting the date for the special election as March 31, 2009. Under state law, Paterson was not required to issue a proclamation for a special election until July 2010. Both the Rothenberg Political Report and the Cook Political Report listed the race as a toss-up. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「New York's 20th congressional district special election, 2009」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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