Richard Hanna: New York House
In 2008, Democratic Representative Michael Arcuri of New York's 24th District failed to take Richard Hanna's challenge seriously, despite the fact that Hanna, a construction-company owner, had the same positions on many issues. (Arcuri won re-election in that race, with 52% of the vote.) Returning for another round, Hanna announced his candidacy the day after Scott Brown secured his victory in Massachusetts, declaring himself "an independent-minded, pragmatic American." While Hanna and Arcuri are both pro-choice and anti–gun control, Hanna claims he will provide an outlet for the moderate voice of his district, which Obama won by a slim margin in the 2008 presidential race, and which George W. Bush took in the two preceding elections. Hanna's campaign website boasts that he is an "outsider" with experience creating jobs, which will be a big issue in this election, as the majority of the district's 11 counties, near Syracuse, Ithaca and Rochester in upstate New York, have lost industrial jobs since 2007.