Interview: Bob Grady On NY's 23rd Congressional District Election Outcome

AP Photo/Mike Groll

New York's 23rd Congressional District Democratic candidate Bill Owens celebrates his victory at Democratic headquarters in Plattsburgh, N.Y., Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2009.

You have to go back to the mid-19th Century to find the last time New York's 23rd Congressional District elected a Democrat to office.

But in a special election yesterday Democrat and retired Air Force Captain Bill Owens defeated Conservative Businessman Doug Hoffman for the vacant seat. There was a Republican in this race as recently as this past weekend, but Didi Scozzafava pulled out and threw her support to the Democrat Owens. Scozzafava had come under fire from conservatives far from rural New York for her support of same-sex marriage and abortion rights.

Bob Grady is the editor of the Plattsburgh Press Republican.  He spoke with VPR's Mitch Wertlieb about how a Democrat beat a Conservative in a district so historically Republican.