By VALERIE BAUMAN (AP) – 4 days ago

ALBANY, N.Y. — A burst of star power Monday brought the vice president, a former presidential candidate, a country singer and the man who used to be "America's mayor" to a largely rural patch of upstate New York as a Democrat tried to fend off a late-campaign surge from a maverick conservative.

Away from the rallies, organized labor claiming membership of 110,000 people in the sprawling 23rd Congressional District knocked on doors, staffed phone banks and flooded the radio waves to give Democrat Bill Owens its united, last-minute clout in the last 72 hours of his unpredictable campaign against Doug Hoffman, a member of the state's Conservative Party.

Hoffman and Owens scrambled in the final hours to win the district, which stretches from eastern Lake Ontario up and over to the Canadian and Vermont borders and has suddenly become a national battleground for the identity of the Republican Party.

What started as a three-way race with Hoffman initially playing the role of spoiler turned into a frantic duel when Republican Dierdre Scozzafava abruptly dropped out over the weekend and backed Owens. She was sharply criticized in the strongly Republican district for some views, including her support of abortion rights and same-sex marriage, that some conservatives balked at.

The schism has pushed high-profile support Hoffman's way, including from former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and others. Scozzafava was initially backed by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who said he was disappointed by her support of Owens following her withdrawal.

Speaking in Watertown on Tuesday, Joe Biden said the Conservatives' view is narrow and a reflection of failed Bush-Cheney policies, espousing a philosophy that "you are either absolutely right or morally wrong.'"

"We need to bring people together, not divide them," Biden said. "This is a place ... where people have strong views but not closed minds."

Meanwhile, automated calls by Rudy Giuliani, the former presidential candidate and New York City mayor who helped comfort the nation after 9/11, flooded telephone lines.

"Voting for Doug Hoffman is the only way to stop (House Speaker) Nancy Pelosi from gaining one more liberal vote for higher taxes, higher federal deficits and government-run health care," Giuliani stated in his automated phone calls.

John Rich of the country music duo Big & Rich was performing Monday evening at a rally for Hoffman, where Fred Thompson, a former GOP presidential candidate and star of TV's "Law & Order," was speaking.

But the tumultuous weekend could help the Democrat out, too.

The AFL-CIO and the New York State United Teachers union united over the weekend for Owens.

"That's key for Owens," said Steven Greenberg of the Siena College poll. "There are not many unions who have the get-out-vote potential" of the teachers union.

Associated Press writers Michael Gormley in Albany and William Kates in Watertown contributed to this report.

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