Republican Matt Doheny jarred awake a region full of political reporters this morning with the following, all-caps headline: "BILL OWENS ENDORSES MATT DOHENY."

"Um...." we all collectively thought. "What the what?"

Rep. Bill Owens, D-Plattsburgh, is Mr. Doheny's Nov. 6 opponent. An endorsement seemed unlikely.

But it turns out that there's more than one Bill Owens in the world. And the Bill Owens who used to be the governor of Colorado was the one who gave Mr. Doheny his endorsement, not the second-term congressman from Clinton County.

“Matt Doheny is committed to keeping taxes low, eliminating unnecessary regulation and improving our aging infrastructure – all pro-growth solutions I championed while governor of Colorado,” former Gov. Owens said.

Well played, Doheny campaign.

There's actually a guy named Matt Doheny whose parents live in the town of Ballston. I'm not sure whether it's in the district or not — even the Board of Elections gets confused about such things — but if I'm the Owens campaign, I'm on the phone right now, trying to work out a "Matt Doheny's parents" endorsement.

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