page_title: Ann Marie Buerkle
section_title: 2010 election
hierarchical_section_title: Ann Marie Buerkle / U.S. House of Representatives / 2010 election
caption_attribution_description: English: Part of a photo from an awesome fundraiser luncheon with then Candidate Ann Marie Buerkle and future Speaker of the House John Boehner in Skaneateles, New York.
context_page_description: Ann Marie Buerkle is an American nurse, attorney, and politician. She served as a commissioner of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission beginning in July 2013 and was the agency's acting chairman from February 2017 to September 2019. During her tenure, the number of companies fined declined sharply, and she was criticized by consumer advocates. Buerkle was an Assistant New York State Attorney General from 1997 through 2010. She served as U.S. Representative for the New York's 25th congressional district, elected in 2010 in an upset of a Democratic incumbent. In a rematch of her 2010 contest, Buerkle was defeated by former Congressman Dan Maffei. She is a member of the Republican Party.
context_section_description: Buerkle defeated turkey farm owner Mark Bitz and activist Paul Bertan to win the Republican nomination.
  Buerkle defeated incumbent Dan Maffei in the 2010 midterm election, an outcome determined after weeks of absentee ballot counting and precinct recanvassing; Buerkle emerged victorious by a narrow 567-vote margin of over 200,000 ballots cast. Maffei conceded the race on November 23, 2010, when it became clear that challenged votes would not change the outcome of the race.
  Maffei had been favored to retain the seat. In addition to rating the district as "Leans Democratic", RealClearPolitics and other pundits thought it was an unlikely congressional district to switch parties. Going into the election, other pundits from CQ Politics, The Cook Report, and the Rothenberg Report ranked it as "Lean Democrat" to "Democrat Favored".
  Buerkle was endorsed by former Alaska Governor and 2008 vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin (who labeled Buerkle a "Mama Grizzly"), as well as by former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. Buerkle, who received substantial Tea Party support in 2010, was described as having "[ridden] the tea party wave to Washington, winning an upstate New York district that leans Democratic on promises of reducing the size of government and repealing the health care overhaul."
caption: Ann Marie Buerkle, 2010
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