WATERTOWN, N.Y. -
Republican Matt Doheny walked into a room of supporters to celebrate his second consecutive primary victory in his bid to represent the North Country in Congress.
"I think people given a clear choice this November; people are going to ask themselves is the country going in the right direction? If not, join my team," Doheny said.
The investment banker from Watertown easily defeated his opponent Kellie Greene, picking up 72 percent of the votes. Greene, an international business consultant from Sacketts Harbor, received 28 percent of the votes.
"I feel great. I think we have accomplished a lot of what we sent out to do. I think we would have liked to have had a better number, we were hoping for more like 40 or 45 percent," Greene said.
Greene says her campaign is over and she won't stay in the race as an Independent or write-in.
Doheny's victory sets up a rematch of the 2010 election against incumbent Democrat Bill Owens. He issued this statement about the rematch: "I look forward to what I hope is a positive discussion on job creation, deficit reduction, and how best to represent our friends and neighbors."
"I'm looking for a very close race that could go either way," said Harvey Schantz, a political science professor at PSU.
The current Congressman defeated Doheny by just 1,900 votes two years ago. Conservative candidate Doug Hoffman captured 11,000 votes. But this time Doheny has the backing of Republicans, Conservatives and Independents. And this time the congressional district is 40 percent new. The lines for the new 21st Congressional District were redrawn due to a declining population. Analysts say the added support and makeup of registered voters in the new district may favor Doheny.
"If you add up the numbers of the enrolled Republicans, Independents and Conservatives, and do it as a percentage of those enrolled, it is slightly higher. So that gives him about 63 percent of the enrollment in the new district as compared to 61 percent in the old district," Schantz said.
And in the race for U.S. Senate, Manhattan attorney Wendy Long defeated her two opponents in the Republican bid to take on incumbent Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand.
