One of the things political parties do is get behind their own candidates to the exclusion of outsiders.
Frankly, we'd be better off if we protected our party brand a bit more ~ this last year we had 16 known candidates for the nomination, and only 3 of them had been lifelong Conservative Republicans ~ the best kind BTW.
We should have controlled entry so that candidates who'd been Democrats, or Libertarians, or who'd accepted appointments from Democrats, or who were lead campaign folks for Democrats, or who made donations to Democrats, were FORCED to come across with some exculpatory representations, or stay out of our party and stick with their own kind!
Normally, the NY Conservative Party gives their line to the Republican. They refused to do so with Scozzafava because she was strongly pro-abortion. And FWIW she was also corrupt and further to the left than the Democrat.
As for getting behind your own party’s candidate, that wasn’t too far from the time when the Republican Establishment betrayed the winner of the Republican primary in Alaska, and instead basically let the current Senator Lisa Murky from Alaska run again after having lost the primary—winning because of corrupt support from the national party.
Return of the Corrupt Bastard’s Club in Alaska, after they had been shoveled out and several of them jailed after Sarah Palin won the governorship.
Steele was only one of those involved. Another was Newt Gingrich, who went out of his way to support Dede—presumably so he could get back into the good graces of Steele and the GOPe.
I used to work in NY, and lived there for quite a while. The chief purpose of the Conservative Party was to hold the NY GOP’s noses to the grindstone, especially on the right to life. As long as they did the minimum, the Conservatives would give them their line. Dede did not meet the minimum.