Closely watched U.S. House races in New York include a spirited challenge to embattled Staten Island U.S. Rep. Michael Grimm, a Hudson Valley rematch and two first-time candidates battling for an open seat stretching across the state’s northern reaches.

Democrats on Tuesday hoped to pick up the seat held by Grimm, a two-term Republican who has pleaded not guilty to 20 federal charges of evading taxes by hiding more than $1 million in sales and wages while running a small Manhattan restaurant.

Grimm also was caught on camera this year threatening to throw a reporter off a balcony after being asked about an FBI probe into his campaign finances.

He is challenged by former Democratic City Councilman Domenic Recchia from Brooklyn, who has solid backing from the national party.

Republicans were looking at the northern New York seat held by retiring Democratic Rep. Bill Owens, where Republican Elise Stefanik faced fellow first-time candidate Democrat Aaron Woolf. Republicans saw a chance not only to retake a seat in a traditional GOP stronghold but also to make the 30-year-old Stefanik the youngest woman elected to Congress.

Woolf is a documentary filmmaker and business owner who dipped into his personal finances to lend his campaign $600,000.

Matt Funiciello ran on the Green Party line.

New York’s other open seat was on Long Island, where Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice is battling Republican Bruce Blakeman. Current Democratic Rep. Carolyn McCarthy has cancer and decided not to run for re-election.

Also on Long Island, Republicans once again made a push to unseat six-term Rep. Timothy Bishop. Republicans, who ran a local businessman in the last two elections, this time backed state Sen. Lee Zeldin, an Army veteran who served in Iraq.

A high-profile rematch in New York featured Democratic Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney pitted against Republican Nan Hayworth. Hayworth won the seat in 2010 only to lose it two years later to Maloney, a former aide to President Bill Clinton who became New York’s first openly gay member of Congress.

Also in eastern New York, two-term Republican Rep. Chris Gibson faced a well-financed challenge from Democrat Sean Eldridge.

Eldridge is married to Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes and pumped $1.84 million of his own money into his first race for Congress. In addition, Eldridge’s venture capital firm made investments in businesses across the eastern New York district he moved to last year.

Derided by Republicans as a rich dilettante, Eldridge argued that he had the independence to reject special interest contributions. Eldridge portrayed Gibson as too conservative for the district.

Also up for grabs is a Syracuse-area seat held by Democratic Rep. Dan Maffei, who enlisted the aid of Vice President Joe Biden and former President Bill Clinton as he faced a strong challenge from Republican John Katko, a former federal prosecutor.

Maffei won the newly drawn seat in 2012 from the Republican who unseated him as a freshman congressman in a squeaker two years earlier.

(AP)