ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Vice President Joe Biden is helping out a Democratic congressional candidate in the final hours of an upstate New York campaign that has become a referendum on the Republican Party.
Biden spoke at a rally Monday to support Bill Owens, who is facing third-party Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman in the special House election Tuesday. Biden said at a hall in Watertown that Hoffman wants to continue the failed policies of the Bush-Cheney administration.
Hoffman spokesman Rob Ryan says the candidate is talking about mainstream issues like high taxes and big spending. Ryan says Biden and Owens push extremist views.
Republican state Assemblywoman Dierdre Scozzafava dropped out of the race Saturday and threw her support to Owens. That's raising questions about GOP unity because fellow Republicans had favored Hoffman.
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