NEWS
NY 19 Race Gains National Attention Contrasting Two Candidates
On the sidebar of Real Clear Politics today there is a link to a Politico article about the contentious NY-19 Congressional race between incumbent Chris Gibson (R) and newcomer Sean Eldridge (D). With both candidates likely to win their parties' primaries, the backgrounds of the candidates is coming under close scrutiny.
Gibson, 49, is a decorated veteran who served multiple tours in Iraq. Eldridge, 27, is funding his effort through a private equity firm he founded with money from his husband's profits from co-founding Facebook.
Politico tracked both candidates down and found different approaches in their styles and substance:
Regarding Eldridge:
Chartock came away without any real sense of the candidate.
Eldridge sounded like “what a young person thinks a politician should sound like,” the radio host said in an interview. “He’s right on all the issues, but what I think people are looking for is a person. He’s extremely bright, has all the assets that you need to run. But it’s cookie cutter.”
.....
For a while, Eldridge had his eye on another congressional seat. In 2011, he and Hughes, who had been living together in a SoHo loft, purchased a $5 million estate in Garrison, N.Y, positioning Eldridge to run in the neighboring 18th District. But in November 2012 that district’s Republican congresswoman, Nan Hayworth, lost reelection to a Democrat. So Eldridge looked north to the 19th District, where Gibson had just won a second term.
Regarding Gibson:
On Feb. 24, 2005, during combat in Mosul, Iraq, Gibson suffered shrapnel wounds in his right leg and the right side of his face. A few fragments remain in his leg. In his Washington office, the congressman keeps a piece of the rocket-propelled grenade that hit him.
Gibson says his modest means helps him identify with voters in the middle-class district. During a daylong car ride through the area’s rural back roads, he said an “empathy factor” would play a prominent role in the race.