Bill Owens

Bill Owens is a member of the U.S. House of Representatives (Democrat) representing the 23rd Congressional District of New York. He came to office in a November 2009 special election, unusual in which the Conservative Party (New York State) candidate Doug Hoffman, with support from the Tea Party Movement, led Republican Dede Scozzafava to drop out and endorse Owens.

Owens is an attorney who had never before held elective office, but had been active in community economic development, bringing jobs from Canada into the northern New York State district, and redeveloping Plattsburgh Air Force Base, a former major employer, after its closure. Fort Drum is still active in the district. The seat became vacant when John McHugh was appointed U.S. Secretary of the Army in the Obama Administration. Owens' being named to the House Armed Services Committee reinforces the importance of military spending to the district.

Committee assignments

• House Armed Services Committee
• House Homeland Security Committee

Voting ratings

Organization	Rating	Date
AFL-CIO
American Civil Liberties Union
American Conservative Union
Americans for Democratic Action
Cato Institute
Christian Coalition
Human Rights Campaign
League of Conservation Voters
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
NARAL
National Rifle Association
National Right to Life Committee
National Taxpayers Union
U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Sources: Links to the voting ratings guides of the above organizations together with brief descriptive information on the organizations themselves, may be found at: http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Interest_group/Catalogs

2008 Election

Candidate	Party	Vote total	Percentage
John M. NcHugh	Republican	143,029	65.33%
Michael P. Oot	Democrat	75,871	34.66%

Source: Federal Election Results - final official tally

2010 Elections

Primary election:

• See also: 2010 U.S. Congressional election

Notes

• Representative Bill Owens - official Congressional web site