Obama raises stakes in NY vote

President Obama on Wednesday endorsed the Democratic candidate in a New York special congressional race that will be decided next week, raising the stakes in an already high-profile contest that is being viewed as the first political bellwether vote of the Obama era.

The president praised businessman Scott Murphy as an ally for change in an e-mail sent Wednesday morning to around 60,000 supporters on voter lists run by the Democratic National Committee and Organizing for America (OFA), the Obama presidential campaign’s database that has been turned into a semi-independent political organization.

The e-mail targeted supporters in and around New York’s 20th congressional district, said DNC spokesman Hari Sevugan. The congressional seat opened up when Democratic incumbent Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand was appointed by the governor in January to serve the final two years of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s Senate term.

Mr. Obama said that Mr. Murphy, a former technology entrepreneur running against the Republican State Assembly Minority Leader Jim Tedisco, has the kind of experience and background we desperately need right now in Washington.

The president pointedly referenced Mr. Murphy’s endorsement of his plans to reorient the nation’s spending priorities around health care, education and energy reform, which Mr. Obama says are necessary to keep the country competitive in the long term.

To restore our economy and build a foundation for lasting prosperity, I’ll need Scott’s help. This week, Scott needs yours, Mr. Obama said, referring to the March 31 special election.

The Tedisco campaign has tried to make an issue of Mr. Murphy’s backing for Mr. Obama’s huge stimulus spending bill, which contained a provision effectively blocking the government from going after past bonuses paid to taxpayer-aided companies such as insurance giant American International Group.

“When [Democratic House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi told Scott Murphy to get in line on the stimulus bill, he was more than willing to rubber-stamp the bill in under 24 hours, even if that meant sticking taxpayers with $165 million in lavish bonuses for failed executives at AIG,” Tedisco spokeman Adam Kramer said.

The district, which covers much of New York’s eastern border with Vermont and Massachusetts and includes much of the Hudson Valley, has more Republican voters than Democrats, but went for Mr. Obama last fall.

Despite the Republican edge, Mrs. Gillibrand won a second term in the district last fall by a large margin.

Mr. Obama’s use of his OFA database, which includes more than 13 million names, along with e-mail addresses and phone numbers, is the second time in the last week he has, as president, leveraged the work of his campaign’s unprecedented organization.

Last weekend, Mr. Obama taped a video message calling on OFA supporters to go out into their neighborhoods and ask their neighbors and friends to sign a pledge supporting his $3.6 trillion budget and give their personal information to OFA volunteers, to be added to their already enormous database.