Matt Doheny, a Republican who grew up in Alexandria Bay, says he thinks the political climate in the country has changed.  He spoke to NCPR yesterday by cell phone from Plattsburgh.

"We need to have an election in 2012 that gives voters the opportunity of growth and fiscal sanity or more of what were getting from the current administration and our current congressman."

In 2010, Doheny fell short in his race against Owens, a Democrat from Plattsburgh. In that contest, Doheny was distracted by a three way race that included Conservative Doug Hoffman. 

Doheny says he hopes this time to unify Republican and Conservative party leaders so that he can focus on toppling Owens.

"We're going to work very diligently from the rank-and-file Conservative folks in the district to the state leaders, to put our best foot forward."

Doheny, a former Wall Street investment banker, says he thinks the big issues during the campaign will be jobs, the deficit and the agenda of President Barack Obama. 

Doheny says one of his big proposals will be to build a new nuclear power plant in the 23rd district - a project he says makes sense despite this year's nuclear crisis in Japan.

"Just look at the [nuclear] facility in Oswego.  Safety is top-notch.  Security is top-notch.  There is definitely a blue print to do it in a very efficient, safe and top-notch way."

Matt Doheny enters the race at a time when President Barack Obama is pushing for higher taxes on corporations and Americans who earn more than a million dollars a year. 

GOP leaders in Washington have called that move "class warefare" but a poll released yesterday by Gallup found that four in ten Republicans support raising taxes for the wealthy — and six out of ten GOP voters favor closing corporate loopholes.

Doheny says he's firmly opposed to tax increases and says corporate taxes actually need to come down.

"You can't penalize people who are going to to take risks, who are going to go ahead and extend themselves to start businesses, to expand current franchises, to buy that new piece of equipment or what have you that will lay the foundation to have more people hired."

Matt Doheny says he'll lay out detailed plans for how he would cut the nation's massive deficits without raising taxes. The election is still fourteen months away, but Doheny says the long campaign will give him time to meet voters and lay out clear policy ideas.