Rep. John Hall is a freshman no more.

The incumbent Democrat from Dover Plains received a resounding thumbs-up from voters in the 19th Congressional District, which includes parts of Orange, Dutchess, Rockland, Westchester and Putnam counties.

“You’re still the one, John!” screamed Jeanette Bazon, raising her glass of white wine as she watched results roll in Tuesday night at the South Side Inn sports bar and grill in Yorktown Heights.

Hall, 60, outdistanced Republican newcomer Kieran Lalor, 33, of Peekskill, who ran a high-paced campaign that clashed with the congressman on earmarks, the economic bailout, nuclear power and veterans.

Lalor is a Marine veteran who served in Iraq. Hall is an anti-war activist who spent much of his first term championing new veterans benefits legislation.

That term seemed to sit well across the district, even in traditionally right-leaning neighborhoods in Orange County. In the Village of Highland Falls, tucked beside the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, folks walking to the firehouse to vote said Hall had done right by them. “He’s a good man,” said Kevin O’Brien, who met Hall in his hometown on the Fourth of July. “He’s not a politician.”

Hall’s grass-roots image served him well two years ago when he upset Sue Kelly, a six-term Republican, and it stuck this campaign too, as he dueled another Washington outsider.

Lalor says his future in politics is uncertain at this point. “I’ll always be involved in the issues,” he said, “but November 4 has been such an important date on my calendar for so long, I haven’t even contemplated November 5.”

Hall certainly has. “I’m looking forward to working with a president who will be a partner with Congress, not an adversary,” he said, predicting a very busy two years in Congress. “We’re going to have to deliver big time.”

Source: Record Online