NY-19 Race Featured in National Media

The race for the Congressional District NY-19 may still be over a year away, but it has already heated up. Incumbent Chris Gibson (R) has been challenged by the husband of a co-creator of Facebook, Sean Eldridge.

Now the story has reached RealClearPolitics, after Eldridge was profiled by the New York Times several months ago.

Left-- Gibson (R), Right-- Eldridge (D)

Eldridge and his husband are multi-millionaires and have recently purchased a $5 million mansion in the Hudson Valley. He has built up his resume over the last several years, with his run for Congress an open secret:

And as a senior adviser and spokesperson for Freedom to Marry -- a group that led the successful fight to legalize same-sex marriage in New York -- Eldridge cut his teeth in the grassroots style of campaigning needed to succeed in the largely rural district, while earning media experience as a public face of the group.

This does not impress the Gibson camp, which slammed the 27-year old.

“If you look at this race, it’s really going to test the hypothesis of whether or not a congressional seat can be bought,” Gibson spokesperson Stephanie Valle said of Eldridge. “We certainly don’t have the expectation that we’re going to be able to match the millions of dollars that Mr. Eldridge will be able to put in the race, but we’re confident we’ll have the funds necessary to win.”

Gibson, a colonel and graduate of West Point is a veteran of the Gulf War, Kosovo, and the Afghanistan conflicts.