Republicans hope for upset win in special election

NEW YORK — President Obama is not on the ballot in Tuesday’s surprisingly close congressional election here, but Republicans in Queens are doing everything they can to make the race a verdict on his performance.

This bastion of Democrats is tilting toward a 70-year-old Republican businessman who has never been elected to any office, and whose campaign is focused on “sending a message” to Obama — over the economy and his support for a Palestinian state and rolling back Israel’s borders to 1967 lines, a big issue for many Jews in the Ninth District.

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