Democrat Bill Owens, Conservative Doug Hoffman and Republican Dede Scozzafava, have been campaigning for five weeks now, in the race for the 23rd Congressional District seat. But it was Bill Owens that declared victory in yesterday’s election.

With 93 percent of the votes already counted, it worked out that Owens led Doug Hoffman by about 5,000 votes. According to unofficial election results, Owens had 49 percent of the votes, Hoffman had 26 percent and Scozzafava only had 6 percent.

Owens admitted that he had defied the odds by winning, as the region has elected Republicans to Congress for over 150 years. Scozzafava had previously suspended her campaign and Mike Long said that her exit made a difference for Owens.

Long, who is the chairman of the state Conservative Party, said that he believes the Conservative party would have won the race if it was a three-way race. He then went on to say that he is disappointed with yesterday’s election outcome.

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