He ran as a 3rd party candidate period.
Third parties lose out when three conditions apply.
First, when they are running beyond their means. This usually means that they run an egotistical presidential candidate first, without having any lower seats to back them up. If they stick to local politics first, they get legs.
Second, they insist on their rigidly holding onto their entire platform, instead of running on the most popular parts of their platform, where they and the public agree. Ironically, this is not “selling out”, as they are not dropping what they believe in, just emphasizing what both they and the voters like.
An axiom to this second rule is to keep it simple. The Contract With America was simple, clear, and popular. Voters love clarity, core values, and straight talk, even if they are not wholly behind the ideas.
Third, is that in many States and at the federal level, laws have been passed to exclude or minimize third party success. So third parties have to get in and litigate long before the election, just to have a fair playing field.
We need a second one.
Sorry, but this is an example of a third party, and in NY-23, as of today, that party’s name is “Republican.”
The new reigning “first” party is Independent, Principled, Conservatism.
I guess if the GOP wants to survive and compete in its current form it is going to have to learn how to beat out the other major liberal party.
Otherwise, it’s going to have to rethink and redo everything, or die.
However, the establishment GOP has largely been adamant about shoving Scuzzy down the throats of the base. They could have realized it was mistake to pick her, but failed (she isn't just hyper-liberal, she's corrupt as well).
True to form, the GOP-uber-alles types blame everyone but the GOP establishment for the desire of conservatives to have a third party. Do you think the vast majority of conservatives expressing such an opinion see such as anything but a last resort?
You are not going to get many who agree with you here.
Most would rather burn down the barn to save the farm.
Look for a rash of third party candidates in 2010 to steal just enough votes to get the D elected.
I make my fight in the Primaries.
Senator Burr (R-NC) is at under 40% right now and I’ll be supporting and R that runs against him - if one does.
Everyone talks about how NC is “BLUE” now. Obama won NC with less than 25,000 votes. Over 25,000 voted for Barr in NC. Barr had no chance of winning but over 25,000 voted for him so they could feel good come Wednesday morning.
Save the party. Vote for its candidate.
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That says the party is more important than what it stands for.
We saw that in 2008, with renegade McCain who stood for little and was defeated by 2-to-1 in electoral votes.
The Republican leadership like the status quo.
Look how surprised they are whenever the ‘natives’ get restless. See the strained, shocked look on Boehner’s face when the Tea Party hundreds of thousands showed up in Washington. See the strained, shocked look on Gingrich’s face when his NY-23 endorsement is now running in 3rd place.
The Republican leadership is their own self-interest group and, as Gingrich said about the NY-23 race, to outsiders, ‘stay out; it’s none of your business.’
Had there been a primary fight, Hoffman would have likely defeated Scozzafava and we wouldn’t even be talking about this.
That remains to be seen. True there was no primary and the candidate was selected via the proportional vote of the 11 county GOP chairs who had input from their committees. Only three of the nine wannabes got votes:
Scozzafava .. 48%
Doheny .. 23&
Maroun .. 27%
Other 6 .. 0%
In a primary with a large field depending upon how many of the nine got in it would appear to me that Doheny and Maroun would have been the most likely to defeat Scozzafava if it would have been possible.
Maybe he used to be a Republican, but the party left him so he was forced to run under the Conservative Party.
Hoffman may win (and that’s still to be seen) and he may conference with the repubs, but when that interim seat comes up for election in 2012 you can be sure the local GOP will pick a new candidate (probably one of the 2 that lost to Scozzfava) and put in enough money to make sure he is soundly defeated.
Political parties don’t like traitors. Hoffman may be the obvious conservative candidate compared to Scozzafava but that mistake won’t happen again and Hoffman will be crushed in 2012 and all his vocal supporters on this site will no where to be found.
It is a third party victory, and one which says that when the Republicans run social liberals, conservatives will run against them as third party candidates.
Competition is good.