And I think this race proves the folly of pushing a 3rd party. Here we had an established 3rd party, with a candidate supported by tons of money and national figures, AND a major party candidate who suspended her campaign, and we still couldn’t get the 3rd-party win.
3rd-party is a good way to get rid of those who are nominally on your side but who you don’t think are good enough; it’s unlikely to actually win you an election, until the NEXT election (except THAT election will be “payback” time where the other side might run 3rd-party and hurt you, so it can take several cycles).
Look, Newt was dead wrong in this election because DeDe was a traitor, as was proven by her actions. But in general, he was right that we won’t defeat the democrats if we adopt a 3rd-party strategy.
When party bosses “chairmen” pick a liberal Republican for a fairly conservative congressional district that hadn't elected a democrat in AGES; something simply MUST be done to show them that someone like Scuzzyfava is simply unpalatable to conservatives (i.e. the Republican base).