Posted on 10/09/2009 6:26:37 PM PDT by rabscuttle385
Michael Long, chairman of the Conservative Party of New York, is urging fellow conservatives not to contribute to the National Republican Congressional Committee.
His complaint: The NRCC is supporting the Republican candidate in New York’s 23rd Congressional District, who he says is out of step with GOP values.
The Republicans have nominated centrist State Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava as their candidate in the special election to be held on Nov. 3. In response, the Conservative Party nominated its own candidate, local accountant Doug Hoffman. Hoffman has been getting some traction, winning endorsements from several conservative groups and garnering 16% support in a recent poll. That has Republicans worried he will siphon support from Scozzafava and let Democrat Bill Owens pull off a victory.
Long sent a strongly worded memo to conservative leaders and groups urging them to withhold support from the NRCC, the campaign arm of House Republicans, until it stops spending money to support Scozzafava. It’s not clear how much impact Long’s missive will have, but it highlights in striking fashion the debate within the Republican Party over whether to recruit moderate candidates in swing districts or put a renewed emphasis on conservative principles.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.wsj.com ...
Donors to the Republican National Campaign Committee have a right to expect their support will help candidates who are broadly in accord with the Republican Party’s fundamental principles.There is little doubt, in these lean times, Americans who make contributions to the NRCC would be shocked to learn their dollars are actually supporting the campaign of an unrepentant liberal who opposes the central achievements of today’s Republican Congressional delegation.
Yet that is exactly to sad state of affairs we now confront. The NRCC is using the contributions of loyal Republicans across the country to fund the Congressional bid of Liberal New York State Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava.
Assemblywoman Scozzafava supports the Obama tax-and-spend Stimulus Package - - the same package the Republicans now in Congress unanimously rejected. She defends the kind earmarked pork-barrel spending that cost Republicans so much credibility in the last election. She supports Big Labor’s card check attack on the secret ballot. And she twice voted to legalize gay marriage.
Assemblywoman Scozzafava wasn’t picked by the voters. Party bosses selected her, reportedly with the guidance and direction of the NRCC.
So, what is stake here is more than the risk of electing yet another Arlen Specter-style liberal Republican. This is a battle about the soul and future of the Republican Party.
Some think the way to win elections is to mimic the Democrats, to offer the voters “liberal-lite” in hopes of finding accommodation with the Democrats and success at the polls.
The NRCC’s support for liberal Assemblywoman Scozzafava is a disturbing indication that the NRCC is test marketing a campaign message blurring the differences between the parties in instead principled opposition to the liberal Democrats’ agenda.
The “me-to” approach is both sure to fail politically and deeply dishonest to the NRCC’s core financial supporters. The donors who sacrifice to write checks to the NRCC don’t expect their efforts to be diverted to liberals like Assemblywoman Scozzafava.
Accordingly, while we are all friends of the NRCC, we reluctantly call for a moratorium on any financial contributions to the NRCC until that organization ceases support for Assemblywoman Scozzafava and clarifies its plans for candidate recruitment and support going forward.
There are great opportunities ahead for the Republicans in Congress. Those opportunities cannot be squandered by political miscalculations and a lack of faith in the central values of the Republican Party.
Doug Hoffman is the better candidate. He’ll caucus with Repulicans if elected. In addition to being conservative, he’s an accountant, and we need more of those in Congerss.
People should give their money directly to conservative candidates. That is the ONLY way we’ll get the Republicans to listen.
Weeks before the last election the NRCC stripped my conservative congressman of funds because he was a “lost cause”. The lost cause lost by a whopping 2% and we got stuck with a marxist pelosi puppet.
If the GOP thinks they can maniulate me into voting for a “progressive” republican they’ve got another thing coming.
I decided several years ago to defund the official arms of the useless republican party, which keep throwing up RINO’s like Crist, Spectre (until he showed his true colors), and the final ultimate RINO, Juan McCain. Hang up on ‘em. Donate to individual candidates, but screw the GOP. They lost the plot years ago.
Exactly. I also return all national committee donation/poll envelopes with an explanation of how to get a check instead of an explanation.
Exactly!!! That is what I am doing... no more $$ to the RNCC!!!!
The GOP Beltway pundits think they can take the conservative base for granted thru an anti-Obama whispering campaign, while on tv claim to want to work with Obama to solve problems.
They are doing the same thing in Oregon’s 5th Congressional district.
They are doing the same thing in Oregon’s 5th Congressional district.
They’re lying, manipulative, bottom feeding scum. They’ll happily toss a conservative seat to the democrats if they think they can use fear to put it back in RINO hands in the next election.
My enemies are Democrats, not Republicans. I do not engage in fights that my enemies might find beneficial.
Scuzzafava is a true RINO - - giving her so much as a dime would be a tragedy.
May as well just write a check to a scumbag Democrat.
Anyway, this kind of action by the NRCC (ie., its support for a Democrat in Republican clothing) is why my checkbook remains slammed shut. I get called all the time by the NRCC. Scuzzafava is another name I can throw in their face before I hang up. Any contributions I make go directly to candidates I support (ie., stone cold conservatives).
Fake Center, go left.
If she really were “moderate” I could go along with that, even if we have to hold our noses. But she sounds worse than Specter, Snowe, Chafee, and those dolts.
We send nothing...we haven’t sent anything....we won’t send anything to the Republican Party until we see strong evidence they are supporting real Conservative values, NOT what appears to be confused, altered definitions of Conservatism as we have been seeing the past few years. IOW Dem-Lite.
We say screw the Leftist RINO’s, and send any contributions directly to the conservative candidates only.
Somebody posted her rating from a NY State Conservative group, she scored something like an 85% liberal rating (which supposedly placed her to the left of at least 40% of the NY Democrat Assembly Caucus).
Wow! AMEN!
They ought to be thrown to the sharks for that.
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