New York's 25th congressional district election, 2008

New York's 25th congressional district election, 2008

November 4, 2008 (2008-11-04)

Nominee Dan Maffei Dale Sweetland Howie Hawkins Party Democratic Republican Green Popular vote 146,411 113,358 8,855 Percentage 54.5% 42.2% 3.3%

Representative before election James T. Walsh Republican Elected Representative Dan Maffei Democratic

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The New York 25th congressional district election for the 111th Congress was held on November 4, 2008. The race featured Democratic Party nominee Dan Maffei, who narrowly lost to incumbent Jim Walsh for the same seat in 2006, Republican Party nominee Dale Sweetland, former Chairman of the Onondaga County Legislature, and Green Party nominee Howie Hawkins, Green Party founder and frequent political candidate.

Maffei defeated Sweetland decisively, 55% to 42%, becoming the first Democrat to represent the district since 1981.^[1]

History

On January 24, 2008, Republican incumbent Jim Walsh announced he would not be running for an eleventh term. Walsh's 2006 Democratic challenger Dan Maffei had already announced his candidacy to challenge the seat in 2008, and had mounted a strong campaign. In March, 2008, after Democratic Syracuse Mayor Matt Driscoll announced he would not be running for the seat, Maffei was virtually assured of the Democratic nomination, and ran unopposed in the Democratic primary on September 9. After it appeared he might run unopposed in the general election, on April 2 Republican Dale Sweetland, coming off a narrowly unsuccessful September 2007 bid for Onondaga County Executive, announced he'd oppose Maffei. Other Republicans followed suit, but Sweetland won the crowded primary and received the party nomination in May 2008.

State of the race

Maffei was heavily favored to win the seat, and lead heavily in campaign contributions.^[2] In addition to rating the district as 'Leans Democratic', RealClearPolitics ranked this as the third most likely Congressional district to switch parties.^[3] Going into the election, other pundits from CQ Politics, The Cook Report, and the Rothenberg Report are also ranking it as 'Lean Democrat' to 'Democrat Favored'.^[4] In May 2008, and again on June 20, 2008, the Washington Post's Chris Cillizza, author of "The Fix", ranked the race as the #1 Congressional race to turn over from a "Red" seat to a "Blue" seat 2008.^[5][6] Although Walsh had held it without serious difficulty before his near-defeat in 2006, the 25th had swung heavily to the Democrats at most other levels since the 1990s. The last Republican presidential candidate to carry the district was George H.W. Bush in 1988.

On November 4 Maffei defeated Sweetland, 55% to 42%.^[1] He will be the first Democrat to represent the area since 1981 (when it was the 32nd District).

References

External links

• Campaign contributions at OpenSecrets.org
• Dan Maffei for U.S. Congress campaign website

• Profile at Project Vote Smart
• Financial information (federal office) at the Federal Election Commission
• Maffei's congressional salary data
• 2006 Zogby Poll