Saying they are fed up with the federal government, a political rookie and a familiar opponent will challenge a veteran congressman for New York’s 23rd Congressional District this fall.
The rookie is Michael Oot, a lawyer from Stockbridge who is seeking the Democratic designation. The familiar opponent is another Democrat Dan Francis, a retired Marine officer from Watertown, ran unsuccessfully for the 23rd District seat in 1994. The incumbent is Rep. John M. McHugh (R, Pierrepont Manor), who was first elected to the House in 1992.
Nationally, Democrats hope to expand their 31-seat majority in the House in the Nov. 4 election. That possibility inspired Oot and Francis to enter the race against McHugh. Both Oot and Francis said they have grown weary of President George W. Bush’s policies and Bush’s followers like McHugh. They are employing a national Democratic strategy of linking Republican incumbents to the unpopular Republican president.
“I’m fed up,” Oot said. “The country’s not headed in the right direction. You can either cocoon yourself from that or stand up and address it. I decided to stand up and address it.”
McHugh declined requests for an interview. His campaign manager, John Sweeney, said that McHugh will run for re-election from the 23rd District.
The 23rd District stretches from Lake Ontario to the Vermont border and has traditionally voted Republican. In the 2004 presidential election, Bush won 53 percent of the vote in the district to John Kerry’s 47 percent. Registered Republicans make up 44 percent of voters in the district. Democrats are 30 percent of the electorate, according to the New York State Board of Elections. These percentages have not changed since 2000.
But both the Oot and Francis campaigns expressed confidence that voters have grown tired of President Bush and will link McHugh to him. “In some ways, you can’t really separate them,” said Chris Rackl, the Oot campaign manager. “McHugh’s been a huge supporter of Bush and his policies, so you have to tie him to it that way. We just don’t like the way the government’s been going.”
Rep. McHugh had not made an official announcement of his re-election bid as of April 29. But he “has every intention of running again,” said campaign manager Sweeney. An announcement will be made “in the very near future,” Sweeney said.
In the race for political money, Democratic challengers Oot and Francis lag behind McHugh in campaign fundraising, according to the candidates’ filings with the Federal Election Commission through March. Some fundraising highlights:
- Oot has raised $34,161 for his campaign. He has $15,415 in cash on hand.
- Francis has not filed any disclosure reports with the FEC.
- McHugh has $261,698 in cash on hand, mostly from donations to his previous campaigns. He has raised a total of $338,261.
- 75 percent of McHugh’s money — $253,362 — has come from political action committees, or PACs. Only $10,500 of that money came from PACs in New York State.
Here’s an early look at the three potential candidates:
John M. McHugh (Republican, incumbent)
Rep. John M. McHugh (R, Pierrepont Manor) has been quiet about his 2008 re-election bid.
He has made no formal announcement and he has consistently fought back rumors that he will retire from Congress after eight terms. But McHugh will be on the ballot again in November, insisted his campaign manager and staffer, John Sweeney.
“It’s still very, very early in this process,” Sweeney said. “Congressman McHugh has every intention of running again this fall. Voters will look at his voting record and see that he is the best choice to continue representing the district.”
McHugh’s voting record reveals a staunch opposition to abortion and steadfast support for the war in Iraq. But since his re-election in 2006, he has shifted to the left on some issues, voting with the Republican Party 83.3 percent of the time, according to The Washington Post’s
Congressional votes database. McHugh voted with Republicans 91.5 percent of the time in his first session of Congress.
McHugh declined to be interviewed and Sweeney, the campaign manager, declined to comment further on McHugh’s voting record.
“I’m hesitant to get into that since we haven’t made an announcement of him running yet,” Sweeney said. “I’d be reluctant to get into that until we do announce that. At that point we’ll start highlighting how Congressman McHugh’s voting record and stances on the issues resonate with the district.”
McHugh was born on Sept. 28, 1948, in Watertown, N.Y. He received a bachelor’s degree in political science at Utica College of Syracuse University and a master’s degree in public administration from the Nelson A. Rockefeller Graduate School of Public Affairs at the University at Albany in 1977. McHugh now lives in Pierrepont Manor in Jefferson County.
McHugh serves on the House Armed Services Committee, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
Mike Oot (Democrat, challenger)
At the end of every day, Michael Oot was dirty from head to toe.
Oot, fresh out of high school, was working for a family-owned construction company . “I was filthy at the end of the day,” Oot said. “It was a tough job.”
But Oot describes the dirty job as a learning experience. “I knew that wasn’t what I wanted to be doing with the rest of my life,” Oot said. “So I worked hard to do something else.”
Oot worked his way through law school as a bartender and became a lawyer specializing in injury cases. He has also served on the Stockbridge School District’s school board.
Oot’s family was originally from Stockbridge, but Oot was born in Denver, Col., in 1949. His family moved back to Stockbridge in Madison County a few years after his birth. Oot attended Alfred University in Alfred, N.Y., and received his law degree from the Western New England School of Law.
Oot still lives in Stockbridge, where he served two terms on the Stockbridge Valley Central School Board. He has been married twice and has five children — four girls and a boy.
All of these experiences, Oot says, have given him a desire to work hard for others when things go wrong. It’s why he has traveled to all of the 23rd district’s 11 counties to seek endorsements from the Democratic committees and to talk with voters, he said.
In an interview the morning after a trip to Essex County, four hours from his home, Oot sipped on coffee with bags under his eyes and admitted the campaigning was taking a toll. “It’s tiring,” he said. “I’m exhausted. But it’s worth it. People know the country’s going down the wrong path.
People recognize there are problems. I just hope they’ll let me fix them.”
Those problems, Oot says, are the economic woes facing the country, the war in Iraq and a “health care crisis.” Oot’s campaign manager, Chris Rackl, argued that these problems can be directly tied to President George W. Bush and Rep. John M. McHugh (R, Pierrepont Manor).
“You can’t separate the two of them,” Rackl said. “They have their own priorities for America.” Oot, said Rackl, “doesn’t like the way the country is going and he knows he can change that.”
Early in the campaign, Oot consistently uses a national Democratic strategy of linking Republican incumbents to the unpopular Republican president. And he supports traditional Democratic positions. He calls for universal health care, an end to the war in Iraq and economic growth through middle-class tax cuts.
These are changes the residents of the district want, Oot argues. And they are changes he is eager to make.
“My prime motivation is an effort to restore the greatness of America,” he said. “The country’s gotten off track but we really can get us back to where we need to be.”
Dan Francis (Democrat, challenger)
Dan Francis has been here before — the underdog challenging a strong incumbent.
And he has lost twice before to that incumbent, McHugh. But that losing experience, Francis says, left him more prepared, more ready for his third shot at the 23rd District seat.
“I know the people and the people know me after running twice,” Francis said. “I know the district well. I know the district’s issues well. I don’t think anyone can say that doesn’t make me qualified.”
In 1992, Francis lost a three-way primary election for the Democratic designation for the 23rd District’s seat. In 1994, he won his party’s designation but lost badly in the general election to McHugh, 67 percent to 18 percent.
But, 14 years later, Francis, now 66, says time has served him well. “I’m older and wiser,” said Francis. “I have a better perspective of what the district wants after just being a citizen for so long.”
Francis was born on Oct. 11, 1941, in rural southern Illinois. He joined the Marines straight out of high school and served two tours of duty in Vietnam. After his military service, he received a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University at Albany and a master’s in education from the University of Southern California.
He then worked with the Army’s education branch to ensure recruits were meeting academic standards for 14 years. He has been retired since 2006.
But now, he says, he is ready to be working again — in Congress. He points to his service in Vietnam as credentials that place him above the other candidates and that give him a necessary perspective on policies.
“Once you’ve been in combat, you have this personal understanding of war,” Francis said. “War is obviously a big issue for us, and so few people in Congress have served in combat. When you’ve had to suffer, when you’ve had to sacrifice, it gives you a whole different perspective on life and freedoms.”
Francis has stressed ending the war in Iraq as one of his top priorities if elected. He also argued he would be a better representative of the district than McHugh because 75 percent of contributions to McHugh’s campaign have come from political action committees, most outside of New York State. Francis stressed that people within the district should fund campaigns.
“I could go and collect lots of money from outside of the district, even outside of the state,” he said. “But those people can’t vote for me. I want the people I’m going to be representing to run my campaign.”
Francis acknowledged he will be at a significant disadvantage in fundraising against McHugh. But, he says, money should not be the deciding factor in an election.
“I want to offer a new kind of leadership for this district,” Francis said. “I know Mr. McHugh’s popular and can raise a lot of money. But that’s not the point. I want to be able to look someone in the eyes and say ‘I’ll do this for you and money’s not the issue.’”
(Heath D. Williams is a junior newspaper major.)
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