Posted on 10/17/2009 6:31:44 AM PDT by cc2k
"We've just been deluged with stuff," said Rob Ryan, media coordinator for Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman, whose congressional campaign in upstate New York's 23rd District has "surged" in recent days.
The most recent poll showed Hoffman gaining 7 points while establishment-backed GOP candidate Dede Scozzafava has lost 6 points. Ryan said, "Republicans are coming home to roost, and it's in the Conservative roost."
In the past week, the three-way contest in the Nov. 3 special election has suddenly become America's most-watched campaign this fall, generating massive attention from reporters and commentators nationwide. The Wall Street Journal, The Hill, Fox News, the
Weekly Standard and scores of political blogs are following this campaign as a bellwether that could have major impact on the electoral landscape heading into the 2010 congressional mid-terms.
"This election is going to be a referendum on two things," Ryan said in a telephone interview Friday evening. "First, it's going to be a referendum on the first 10 months of the Obama administration. And second, it's going to be a referendum on the future of the Republican Party."
<snip>
While Hoffman blamed local political loyalties for the GOP's pick of Scozzafava, it has sparked bitter resentments on Capitol Hill, where GOP conservatives see the pick as the latest example of bungling by National Republican Congressional Committee staffers. As one Republican House member told The Prowler last week, he and his conservative colleagues "blame the NRCC staff for apparently not doing its job."
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
A few notes.
Ninety percent of House Republican members have reportedly refused to donate to the Scozzafava campaign, and House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence of Indiana has notably refused to endorse her. When conservative Texas Rep. Jeb Hensarling, under pressure from House GOP leadership, spoke up in support of Scozzafava, it caused a firestorm of
criticism from conservatives.
Hammered by hard-hitting ads from Hoffman -- as well as from the free-market Club For Growth, which has backed the Conservative Party candidate -- Scozzafava's campaign was reportedly nearly broke earlier this week. But Friday, the Republican National Committee confirmed to Congressional Quarterly that it had made a "six-figure" transfer to the NRCC in order to fund the Scozzafava campaign -- producing yet another round of conservative
denunciations of national GOP leadership. The grassroots outcry grew even louder when it was learned that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich was also supporting Scozzafava.
Among Hoffman's supporters are Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol, the political action committee of the ACU, conservative talk-radio host Fred Thompson, the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List, and the influential GOP conservative blog Red State.
<snip>
Another source close to the Hoffman campaign confirmed tonight that former House Majority Leader Dick Armey is expected to campaign for Hoffman next week. A Texan who is now chairman of the pro-market group Freedomworks, Armey was a key leader of fiscal conservatives in the House GOP during the "Contract With America" era of the 1990s.
Freedomworks was a main sponsor of last month's 9/12 March On DC, which drew a huge crowd to the Capitol as part of the Tea Party movement that began early this year and has sparked rallies nationwide. Hoffman has been endorsed by the 9/12 project, the political arm of the Tea Party movement. In an exclusive interview late Friday, the candidate said he hopes to have as many as 500 Tea Party volunteers nationwide assisting his campaign locally in the final week before the Nov. 3 election.
"They're getting excited about my campaign because I'm the Reagan conservative they're looking for," Hoffman said by telephone, shortly after attending the official opening of a new local campaign headquarters in Plattsburgh. "They're coming from around the country to help us out."
Top aides to the campaign say they expect the next poll -- from Quinnipiac, due out next week -- will show even more gains for the Conservative candidate. Stressing the need for more campaign cash to maintain his momentum, Hoffman predicted that Scozzafava's support will "continue dropping" while he focuses more on the Democrat, Owens.
Blaming the staff is a lame excuse. The leadership of the RCCC needs to be held accountable for this. Pete Sessions needs to go. And someone who understands republican principles as well as Republican party politics is needed.
The RCCC and the RNC will not get a dime of my money in the 2010 cycle. They will get copies of checks I send to Conservative candidates, like Doug Hoffman.
I will also support conservative primary opponents for any Republican that donates to this Scozzafava candidacy. That includes Boehner, Cantor and others in the leadership. No more RINOs, and no more RINO enablers.
Please, send Hoffman a donation. I wish we would get behind him as strongly as we got behind Joe Wilson last month.
Markos Moulitsas, founder of The Daily Kos has endorsed Scozzafava. Dede Scozzafava has also been endorsed by NYSUT, the largest labor union in New York, and an affiliate of the National Education Association.
Scozzafava also holds these positions:
Scozzafava has also run in past elections on the Working Families Party (a progressive party associated with ACORN) line on the ballot.
This lady isn’t a RINO, she is a big “R” democRat.
There are also 17 RINOs in the house who have donated funds to this Liberal democRat's campaign. They include Boehner and Cantor. I don’t have a full list, but I will be looking for it. These RINOs should be targeted for elimination in the primaries next year.
| From the desk of cc2k: |
Bungling? I'm thinking these staffers are out and out left wing.
I have always thought there has to be Communist and Leftist ‘sleepers’ within the Republican party, as staffers. etc.
Probably also a lot of gay activists as well. They know all the right words and probably write speeches. Telling, gripping speeches that will later be forgotten.
That’s the only way Dede could have been chosen.
Just sent my donation.
I too have had enough.
I don't think they're necessarily there under false pretenses. They may simply have the view that the GOP is more liberal than it actually is. Either way, we need fresh blood to replace them, if the staffers are in fact liberals.
This is the guy I was telling you about.
Effective politics is not a battle of grand gestures and showing up every couple of years, it involves being in the messy day to day work of actually running the party. Scozzafava did that and won the endorsement.
Until Conservatives quit throwing temper-tantrums about the GOP, get off their asses and take back their party, they are going to be a minority part of a minority party .
Exactly: these are not mistakes, they are calculated actions to keep the power of the GOP in the elite. I’ve taken to opposing any candidate Newt or the other self-styled leaders supports.
I’m a conservative. I want to be a Republican, so my vote doesn’t go to waste. The party has to be changed and the power wrested from those in charge.
Colonel, USAFR
Your strategy worked so well for the last two decades and yet nothing has changed. Go take a walk in traffic. You are the problem not the solution.
Yep, sent mine too, and I don't even live in NY. I just am tired of these RINOs getting elected to Congress. Ms. Scozzafava should just switch parties to the Democrats, if she holds positions like that.
As to the RNC, I view them as a hostile organization, and the primary reason I left the Republican party to become an independent (Constitutionalist).
In some ways, I am with you so far. The locals should have been more involved in their local party. But their local party should have been paying more attention to the people, and less to the power structure within the state party.
MNJohnnie wrote:
Hmm so maybe instead of throwing tempertanrums the local Conservatives should of taken control of the local party apparatus then Hoffman would be the candidate ...
There have been TEA Parties, and other demonstrations in this district, just like all over the rest of the country. Instead of trying to present Republicans as the solution to these problems, party officials at all levels need to listen to these people, and formulate a solution that will represent the concerns and values of these very motivated, very angry people. That isn’t happening.
In 1994, the “Contract with America” carried the Republicans to victory in the House. But what most Republicans today don’t realize is that many of the ideas in that contract came from the people. A lot of that Contract with America originated from callers to talk radio, and was fleshed out by talk radio before being mailed/faxed/phoned in to various Republican Representatives who actually understood the meaning of that word and their place in government.
Today’s Republican leaders act like they have to come up with the solution (and they are scared to death of trying to do that, and not really all that good at it either). They really need to listen to the people and represent the people. The people can eventually pull them out of this if they are willing to listen.
One problem that we have today that is much worse than it was in 1993 is that the Marxists have not slowed down, and there is a lot of noise among the people who are just plain scared and fed up with the current situation. So we, the people, are not focusing as much on ideas that can move us forward.
Here I disagree with you. The RNC and the RCCC are national organizations. They receive money from people in every state. They claim to represent the Republican party, with an actual Republican platform of ideals and values. They took this money by claiming that they would use it to advance that platform.
MNJohnnie wrote:
... getting all the RNC money and support.
They have a fiduciary responsibility to only use these funds to advance candidates who support the platform, or at least most of the platform. To spend it supporting candidates who oppose most of the party platform, like Scozzafava, is corruption plain and simple. The RNC and RCCC made a mistake getting into this candidacy, and they doubled down on their mistake yesterday with a six figure contribution to oppose much of the very platform that they claim to be advancing.
In short, the RNC and RCCC had a responsibility to check out this candidate before committing to supporting her. They completely abandoned that responsibility in this race. That move will cost them a lot in the long run.
Further, the leadership blaming this on staffers is deplorable. If a staffer made this kind of mistake, it isn’t a problem with the staffer. The problem lies with whoever thought that they could delegate this kind of decision to that staffer. There is a real lack of managerial ability in the RCCC especially, and in the RNC to a lesser extent. “The staffers screwed up,” isn’t an excuse that should be accepted. It points to a bigger problem with the people pushing that excuse.
| From the desk of cc2k: |
If the voters in that district are decidedly pro abortion and pro gay marriage any candidate who opposes that has little chance of winning. On top of that it is a 3 way race which means the dem candidate could possibly slip in with less than 40% of the vote because the pub candidates split the vote (Can anyone say “McCain?”).
Too often the torch and rope conservatives fed up with the “Rino’s” in the party believe they can impress their political desires on others and other districts half way across the country. You can't. It's their district, they're the people casting the votes and all you may end up doing is pissing them off with your ham handed attempts to dictate the outcomes of their election from afar.
If you want to see more conservative candidates elected and Rino’s run out of town you can't just put up and support a more most conservative candidate while yelling and screaming about the abomination of Rino’s...the people in that district may like Rino’s for all you know.
You have to first change the hearts and minds of the voters in that district that flattens the road for the more conservative candidates journey .
re: “you are the problem not the solution”
Completly false conclusion. Mnjohnnie is exactly right. Believe me, I understand the anger toward the RNC, but going 3rd party only hands the win to the dems. It’s simple math - if you divide the conservative voting block (which IS what will happen) you give the opposition an enormous advantage.
It is a far better strategy to clean and fix your house than abandoning it for a “pup tent” in the street. Your are just going to be run over and “brushed” down the drain of irrelevancy.
It’s the RINO infestation that is shooting us in foot. Getting rid of them means conservatives getting involved on the precinct by precinct level until you control the state party leadership. This will take time and money but at least it is an effort that has less chance of being a wasted one - rather than the 99.9% chance of failure with 3rd party pipedreams.
I truly believe that part of the reason we’ve gotten stuck with the Big O is because we had so many “principled” conservatives who took their vote home because they didn’t get their way.
I remember some of these principled conservatives arguing that it is better to let 100% evil win than vote for McCain because the American people will be shocked by the radical policies of the dems and that this will move them to come flocking back to the conservative camp. In the meantime, look at what has happened. Even if this conservative resurgence occurs it may take years to fix all the crap this administration is doing. Plus, we’ll be stuck with Obana appointed marxist judges for years and years to come.
No, my conservative brothers and sisters, clean the house, fumagate the house, but don’t abandon it. If you do, you’ll only be watching from the sidelines as the tsunami of marxist sludge pushes our once great country into the dust bin of history.
You say the same things I have been for years. Success in politics isn’t gained with pitchforks, torches and rope. That’s the lazy mans approach. Most of the people calling for Scozza to quit haven’t even checked the district voters opinions and beliefs. If they are adamantly pro choice and pro gay marriage, her dropping out may push more votes to the dem candidate then to the Conservative Party candidate.
IMO, the torch/pitchfork/rope crowd among conservatives do far more damage to the cause then they help. They have no idea of the realities of politics and the inside baseball issues, they just want want they want and they want in NOW. They decry the pubs who fall in “lock step” with the GOP leadership but that is exactly what they demand...just their own lockstep.
Very good question. I tried to get demographics on issues for the district, and wasn’t that successful on direct polling of the people.
Bob J wrote:
Has any of the arch conservatives on this and other threads taken a look at the opinions of the voters in that district?
However, I did find a lot of information about John McHugh, the outgoing Rep. He won his last election (2008) with 65% of the vote. John McHugh had a 71.55% lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union. Although he was slipping somewhat in the most recent years. There is a good summary of McHugh's postions on the issues at http://www.ontheissues.org/NY/John_McHugh.htm.
The district elected him last year with 65% of the vote, while rejecting McCain (a “moderate”/RINO), going for the “Hope and Change™” candidate by 52%. Perhaps the lesson in that is Conservatives are more electable that Moderates/RINOs in this district.
| From the desk of cc2k: |
Based on McHughs webapage I don’t see how the dem candidate an Scozza are pulling 62% of the vote in the polls.
Somethigs amiss here...
Most likely a combination of factors. Great luck on the part of Owens (the D) and some critical mistakes from Scozzafava and Hoffman.
Bob J wrote:
Based on McHughs webapage I don’t see how the dem candidate an Scozza are pulling 62% of the vote in the polls.
Owens has been well funded. He is supported fully by the DCCC and Dem leadership. He has four different television ads running, all of which are message oriented. He is staying “above the fray.”
On the other side, Scozzafava nearly ran out of money this week, until the RNC and RCCC stepped in. And the RCCC has been running some ads on her behalf, but they have been attacking the third place runner, Hoffman, not Owens.
Hoffman got a late start. He did get some big support from the Club for Growth. Their PAC is running ads for him, to the tune of about $250,000, but their ad doesn’t mention Hoffman’s name at all. It focuses on attacking Scozzafava and Owens. That is a worthy goal, but when your guy doesn’t have the highest name recognition in the race, getting his name out should be a high priority.
| From the desk of cc2k: |
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