ALBANY, N.Y. — Two months ago, it would have been hard for the most ardent political wonk to find the state’s 20th Congressional District on a map.
On Tuesday, it will be the center of the American political landscape, with Republicans hoping a win there will knock President Barack Obama off stride and Democrats looking to build on the momentum of the past two years.
Republican Jim Tedisco, a state legislator for 27 years, faces Democrat Scott Murphy, a businessman who has the backing of the president and influential unions. The special election is to replace Kirsten Gillibrand, who was named to the U.S. Senate in January after former Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton became secretary of state.
The contest quickly became about issues far beyond the sprawling, mostly rural district, which stretches along the Hudson River valley from just north of the New York City suburbs to just below the Canadian border. Voters will flip levers for Murphy and Tedisco, but national leaders will see a judgment on a president, his plan to save the economy and the strength of the country’s two dominant political parties.
For Obama, who sent an e-mail urging supporters to help Murphy and appeared in a television ad bought by the Democratic National Committee, this is the first electoral test since he took office.
Getting a Democrat elected would show his popularity even as his stimulus package is criticized for a loophole allowing the bailed-out American International Group Inc. insurance company to award millions of dollars in bonuses to executives. It also would add muscle to his efforts to pass a budget despite tax increases that worry even some Democrats.
Murphy, 39, said that when he decided to run, he never anticipated an endorsement from the president. “I’m humbled,” said Murphy, who lives in Glens Falls.
Both campaigns turned up get-out-the-vote efforts in the final days of the campaign.
Tedisco, 58, said he was campaigning 24 hours a day, with a goal of hitting every diner in the district by Tuesday. But he lives outside the district, in Glenville, an issue Democrats brought up often, so he can’t vote for himself.
