Congressional candidate Matt Doheny, of Watertown, has filed petitions bearing nearly 10,000 signatures of Republican and Independence Party voters in New York's 23rd Congressional District who are backing his bid to unseat Rep. Bill Owens (D-Plattsburgh) in November.
Petitions submitted to the New York State Board of Elections on behalf of Doheny carried 8,691 signatures of registered rank-and-file Republicans from across the 11-county district; nearly seven times the 1,250 signatures required to qualify for the GOP line on the ballot. Also submitted were Independence Party petitions carrying 1,345 signatures from members of that party residing in the 23rd District.
The New York State Independence Party has already endorsed Doheny's candidacy, so he is assured that line on the November ballot.
Doheny thanked the many volunteers who circulated his petitions in each of the district's 11 counties, as well as the voters who signed them. "I'm very grateful for the huge effort my friends and supporters made circulating petitions across the district during the past weeks," he said, "and my message to the many voters who signed in support of my candidacy is, thank you, and I won't let you down. I'm in this to win it for all of us, in November."