2006 United States Senate election in New York

The New York 2006 U.S. Senate election held November 7, 2006 determined that incumbent Democratic Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton would continue to represent New York in the United States Senate, for a six-year term ending January 2013. This is Clinton's second term as Senator. Clinton was challenged by Republican John Spencer, the former Mayor of Yonkers, New York. Clinton gained 67% of the vote to Spencer's 31%.

Candidates for New York Senate

The Democratic Party candidate

File:HillaryClintonLogo.jpg

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (born October 26, 1947) is the junior United States Senator from New York, serving her freshman term since January 3, 2001. She is married to Bill Clinton, the 42nd President of the United States, and was First Lady of the United States during his two terms from 1993 to 2001. Before that, she was a lawyer and the First Lady of Arkansas. Current incumbent Senator elected in 2000 after defeating Congressman Rick Lazio

The Republican Party candidate

File:John Spencer 2006 logo small.gif

John Spencer is a former Mayor of Yonkers, New York (1995-2003) and was the 2006 Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate seat held by incumbent Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton. Prior to entering politics as a member of the Yonkers City Council in 1991, he worked in retail, food service, construction, waste management and banking. On March 6, 2006, he was endorsed by Congressman Vito Fossella.

The Socialist Equality Party candidate

Bill Van Auken - a full time writer for the World Socialist Web Site and the 2004 Socialist Equality Party candidate for U.S. President [1]

The Socialist Workers Party candidate

Roger Calero - a writer for The Militant, associate editor of Perspective Mundial, and the 2004 Socialist Workers Party candidate for US President.

The Green Party candidate

Howie Hawkins - Green Party is an American politician and activist. He co-founded the anti-nuclear Clamshell Alliance in 1976 and the Green Party in the United States in 1984.

The Libertarian Party candidate

Jeff Russell was nominated as the official Libertarian Party candidate for United States Senate at the Libertarian Party of New York Convention on April 29, 2006 in Albany, New York. Russell's campaign slogan was "A Vote for Peace and Liberty is Never a Wasted Vote."

Independent candidate

• Boris Krymskiy was an independent candidate according to some FEC filings [2], but he was not listed on the ballot or included in final results.

Senate election background

Nominee Hillary Clinton

Hillary Rodham Clinton

Hillary Clinton announced in November 2004 that she would seek a second term in the Senate. No major Republican entered the race; the presumptive nominee, Westchester County District Attorney Jeanine Pirro, dropped out in December 2005 after her campaign failed to gain traction. Clinton easily won a September 2006 primary against labor activist and anti-war candidate Jonathan Tasini, gaining 83 percent of the vote.

Clinton's opponent is set to be former Yonkers Mayor John Spencer. Several third-party candidates are also running, including Bill Van Auken of the Socialist Equality Party, Howie Hawkins of the Green Party and Jeff Russell of the Libertarian Party. Polls during the campaign have generally shown Clinton with a 20-point lead or better over Spencer, with no third-party candidate showing strength.

Nominee John Spencer

In 2005, Spencer announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate seat held by Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is seeking re-election to a second term. Politically, Spencer is generally opposed to abortion, against gun control, and a supporter of tighter border security. His support for the Bush Administration and its policies is well known, including but not limited to the war in Iraq.

On May 31, 2006 Spencer won the endorsement of the state Republican Party organization but did not achieve the threshold of 75 percent he needed to prevent his rival, former Pentagon aide Kathleen Troia “K.T.” McFarland, from gaining an automatic position on the primary ballot. He only received 63 percent, and thus faced McFarland in the September 12, 2006 Republican primary, which he won by a margin of 20 points. [3] "Spencer called on McFarland to step aside after the vote, but McFarland told CQPolitics.com she had no intention of withdrawing from the race."

In a June 2006 radio ad, Spencer attacked national Republicans for not funding his Senate campaign.

In his 2006 election campaign, Spencer came out in favor of New York's Court of Appeals denying same-sex marriage to 42 gay and lesbian couples who challenged that denial as unconstitutional. On his campaign page, Spencer says that marriage equality for same-sex couples equates to "special rights for gays."

Nominee Howie Hawkins

Hawkins is currently the Green Party's candidate for the United States Senate in the state of New York. His primary opponent is the current incumbent, Senator Hillary Clinton.

His signature campaign issue has been the Iraq War. Specifically, Hawkins criticizes Senator Clinton's endorsement of the Iraq war resolution, and continued support for an American troop presence in Iraq.

Hawkins pledges to implement what he describes as a modern-day version of the Hatfield-Kennedy Amendment -- a proposed Senate resolution intended to cut off funding for the Vietnam War -- which would defund military operations for the U.S. Armed Forces unless and until they were redeployed out of theater, and possibly replaced by an international peacekeeping force.

He has called upon supporters of Jonathan Tasini -- Hillary Clinton's anti-war opponent in the Democratic primary -- to vote for him in the general election, now that Tasini has lost his primary challenge.

Opinion polling

General election polling

Source	Date	Clinton (D)	Spencer (R)
Marist College	November 3, 2006	65%	32%
Siena Research Institute	November 3, 2006	65%	28%
Marist College	October 20, 2006	67%	30%
Quinnipiac	October 19, 2006	65%	30%
Siena Research Institute	October 16, 2006	59%	32%
Quinnipiac	October 5, 2006	66%	31%
Zogby Interactive	September 28, 2006	54.7%	31%
Siena Research Institute	September 18, 2006	62%	33%
Zogby Interactive	September 11, 2006	56.5%	33.2%
Marist College	September 8, 2006	62%	32%
Zogby Interactive	August 28, 2006	55.1%	34.4%
Marist College	August 23, 2006	60%	35%
Siena Research Institute	August 7, 2006	58%	32%
Rasmussen	August 5, 2006	61%	31%
Zogby Interactive	July 24, 2006	53.7%	34.2%
Marist College	July 19, 2006	61%	34%
Quinnipiac	June 22, 2006	57%	33%
Zogby Interactive	June 21, 2006	50.9%	32.9%
Siena Research Institute	June 19, 2006	58%	32%
Quinnipiac	May 18, 2006	63%	27%
Marist College	May 10, 2006	63%	33%
Siena Research Institute	May 4, 2006	58%	33%
Strategic Vision (R)	April 28, 2006	58%	24%
Zogby International	April 4, 2006	54%	33%
Quinnipiac	March 30, 2006	60%	30%
Strategic Vision (R)	March 2, 2006	63%	24%
Marist College	January 30, 2006	62%	33%
Siena Research Institute	January 30, 2006	58%	31%
Quinnipiac	January 20, 2006	60%	30%
Strategic Vision (R)	December 8, 2005	67%	20%
Strategic Vision (R)	October 27, 2005	66%	19%
Marist College	September 30, 2005	62%	31%

Election results

Source: New York State Board of Elections General Election Results, Certified December 14, 2006

2006 United States Senate election, New York

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Hillary Rodham Clinton (inc.)	3,008,428	67.0	+11.7
	Republican	John Spencer	1,392,189	31.0	−12.0
	Green	Howie Hawkins	55,469	1.2	+0.6
	Libertarian	Jeff Russell	15,929	0.4	+0.3
	Socialist Equality	Bill Van Auken	11,071	0.2	n/a
	Socialist Workers	Roger Calero	6,967	0.2	+0.2
Majority			1,616,239	36.0
Turnout			4,490,053	23.3
	Democratic hold		Swing	+11.9

Election results by county.

Percentages do not add to 100% due to rounding.

Per New York State law, Clinton and Spencer totals include their minor party line votes.

In addition, 213,777 ballots were blank, void, or scattered, and are not included in the Turnout sum or percentages.

Analysis of results

Clinton's victory margin over her Republican opponent (67%-31%) was a significant gain over her showing in the 2000 senate race against Rick Lazio (55%-43%), and was the second-largest margin of victory for a Senate race in New York history, and the third-largest for a statewide race in New York. Clinton's 2006 margin did not quite equal the percentage received by Eliot Spitzer in the concurrent gubernatorial race (69%-29%) nor by Charles Schumer in his 2004 Senate re-election campaign (71%-24%), both of which had also been against little-known Republican opponents.

See also

• New York gubernatorial election, 2006
• Pennsylvania U.S. Senate election, 2006

External links

• New York Elections Website
• Bill Van Auken announcement

Candidate pages

• Hillary Clinton for Senate (This website is now for her Presidential race.)
• John Spencer for Senate
• Howie Hawkins for Senate
• Jeff Russell for Senate

Preceded by 2004 Charles Schumer

New York U.S. Senate elections 2006

Succeeded by 2010