Nov. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Democrat Bill Owens won a vacant U.S. House seat in New York in a race that divided the Republican Party and attracted national attention.

With 95 percent of the precincts reporting, Owens led Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman, 49 percent to 45 percent, according to the Associated Press. Hoffman conceded in a statement on his Web site.

Owens, 60, succeeds Republican John McHugh, who was named secretary of the Army by President Barack Obama. Owens’s victory gives the Democrats 27 of New York’s 29 House seats. Republicans lost three New York seats in 2008.

“It proves that anger can get you 45 percent of the vote,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters today. “That doesn’t win most elections. Elements of the Republican Party sought greatly to nationalize the election yesterday in New York and they lost.”

Owens, a lawyer, told supporters voters “put aside partisanship and declared they’re ready to move forward, not backward.”

He became the first Democrat to represent the northeast corner of New York in more than 100 years, according to Congressional Quarterly.

‘Powerful Message’

“Although we did not succeed in winning this election, we have succeeded in making sure political parties and special interests no longer take the people for granted,” Hoffman said on his Web site. “We have sent a powerful message and laid the groundwork for future conservative campaigns.”

Republican nominee Dede Scozzafava, a state Assembly member, withdrew from the race Oct. 31 and endorsed Owens a day later. She received about 6 percent of the vote.

When McHugh’s seat became open, Republican leaders in the district coalesced behind Scozzafava, 49, a moderate who backs abortion rights and earned some labor union endorsements.

New York’s Conservative Party, which often supports Republicans, rebelled and nominated an antiabortion, anti-tax candidate in Hoffman, 59.

The race attracted national attention as several prominent Republicans such as former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty and former House Majority Leader Dick Armey of Texas bucked their party to support Hoffman, an accountant.

Backing Scozzafava

House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a Georgia Republican, backed Scozzafava while she was in the race.

Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine, the governor of Virginia, called the congressional contest “perhaps the most consequential race” among U.S. elections held yesterday.

Representative Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said the House race showed that Republicans “have to deal with an emboldened and well-funded far right-wing that refuses to tolerate moderate Republicans with differing opinions.”

Representative Pete Sessions of Texas, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, focused on his party’s victories in the New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial races. Those outcomes, he said, “tell us more about what 2010 holds in store for the party in power.” He called Owens’s win “a momentary victory for Democrats.”

Millions Spent

The NRCC spent almost $900,000 on Scozzafava’s behalf.

Owens raised more than Hoffman and was helped by the DCCC, which spent $1.1 million on his behalf.

Spending by outside groups in the race exceeded $3 million, Federal Election Commission reports show. That was more than the three candidates raised combined.

Owens’s campaign took in about $880,000, Scozzafava raised about $330,000 and borrowed $12,000, and Hoffman received more than $400,000 in donations and loaned his campaign $102,000.

Democrats now hold a 258-177 House majority. The party won another seat yesterday in a Northern California district where Democrat John Garamendi, the state’s lieutenant governor, easily defeated Republican David Harmer. With all precincts reporting, Garamendi had 53 percent of the vote and Harmer 43 percent, according to the AP vote count.

Garamendi succeeds Democrat Ellen Tauscher, who left the House to become the U.S. State Department’s undersecretary for arms control and international security.

“From my perspective we won last night,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, said today. She noted that Owens called his triumph “a victory for health-care reform and other initiatives” of Democrats in Congress.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan D. Salant in Washington at jsalant@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 4, 2009 12:19 EST