With the race almost drawing closer to a finish, Owens and Doheny start to fight for the undecided voters in hopes of securing a victory on November 2, 2010 for a seat in the House. It’s still anybody’s race and is still considered a toss-up according to the New York Times Race Rating. According to the FiveThirtyEight Model, on October 26, 2010, the chance of a Republican win was 64%, and today it has declined to 60%. What does this mean about the election? It means that undecided voters are going to play a large role on which candidate wins the 23rd Congressional District of New York’s seat in the House.
In this fight for votes, both candidates touch on “hot-button” issues that they feel that the public feels the need to be addressed. Matt Doheny took a negative approach and discussed Owens’ voting record, “My opponent voted to go ahead and take a vacation, he was the last vote 210 to 209, to not stay and make sure that we don't end up having one of the biggest tax increases ever on January 1st, the Obama tax hike, he voted to go on vacation and come back home,” Doheny said. Owens took a different approach than Doheny and discussed what he wants to do if he gets re-elected. “I want to see programs that create jobs,” Owens said. “Those targeted tax credits that are going to help businesses create jobs; I think we need to facilitate the movement of people and goods across the Canadian border.”
Doheny is clearly tired of what he views as “reckless spending” in Washington and the candidates disagree on the recent health care bill (which Owens voted for). He defends his decision stating, “Health care premiums were going to go up, if we didn't do something, were going to go up 10 to 40 for the foreseeable future per year. They had gone up on average of 10 percent for the last ten years. This was a good first step,” Owens said. Doheny completely disagrees with Owens and feels the district is heading in the wrong direction due to out of control spending, socializing healthcare, and raising people’s taxes. Will Doheny’s negative approach get the attention of some undecided voters or will Owens’ approach be more effective? We will have to wait and find out November 2 since at this point in the race, it can go either way and be anyone’s victory.
Popular television show, "Family Guy," also comments on undecided voters when one of the characters runs for an election. This video in no way reflects the opinions of the candidates or myself but is just a humorous approach to the subject:
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