GOP pickup seats in Stamford, Norwich; hold their own in major Democrat towns
Posted on 11/04/2009 2:44:42 AM PST by markomalley
Their candidate lost in the end, but for many in the rapidly expanding "tea party" movement, this fall's special House race in upstate New York was a "training ground" that taught its cadre of loosely organized grass-roots activists how to challenge both major parties and has only whetted the movement's appetite for the 2010 midterm elections.
Tea party foot soldiers fueled Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman's meteoric rise that drove liberal Republican candidate Dede Scozzafava out of the race, giving the anti-tax, anti-spending activists their first real victory.
But the ballot-box clout of the movement remains a question mark after Mr. Hoffman fell in a tight race to Democrat Bill Owens Tuesday, handing Democrats their biggest victory on a night of reverses and giving the party control of the New York House seat for the first time in more than a century.
But despite the close loss, tea party activists insist they have proved this year that they will be a new force to be reckoned with on the American political scene.
"These are people who are slowly starting to focus on elections. Many of them, who had never been involved in politics before, were uninterested in the political parties, but are now treading carefully about how to get involved and where they get involved," said Brendan Steinhauser, grass-roots director at FreedomWorks, the conservative organization headed by former House Republican leader Dick Armey of Texas.
Virtually all of the activists are new to politics, and the Hoffman campaign tapped into their forces from the start, with the help of FreedomWorks and other groups. Many were given key positions in the Hoffman campaign, where they learned quickly about the nuts-and-bolts of elective politics.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
The ‘Hold your nose and vote R’ crowd will be claiming victory over the NY23 race - and they’ll still be missing the point...
The spoilers were Scuzzy, Newt and their RINOphants.
We succeeded in preventing their victory and in turn (like little children) they prevented our victory over Owens by endorsing him and sucking away enough votes to spoil it (it was close enough).
At least the upstate NY-23 voters got what they deserved, and deserve what they now get - A pro-GAY marriage, pro-Abortion, pro-Stimulus Tax-and-Spender in plain view! Not a disheartening RINO Snowe-like Republican voting against the conservative grain.
That area has been in a depression for decades...apparently; they like it that way.
Very few NY voters are conservative. This was a gerrymandered GOP district. One of 3 GOP seats in NY..out of 31 total. RINO McHugh got 145k in 2008 and Hoffman got 62k.
The question unasked tonight is how many Republicans held their noses and voted for Hoffman (a man who didn't even live in the district), despite their anger over out of state interference, and out of fear of giving 0 and Pelosi another GOP seat. The answer is...not enough to win. The point I got out of it was Rush, Palin, and hundreds of thousands of conservative supporters across the US think their opinion means more than the voters of the district.
Also polls paid for by the Minutemen are a load of crap.
Your astroturf is not working here.
Cheers!
Sarah Palin: A Victory for Common Sense and Fiscal Sanity
Cheers!
LOL!
So why didn't this "overwhelmingly non-conservative" voters vote for Scozzafava? She was still on the ballot! Only a few thousand voted for her, while several ten thousand voters voted for Hoffman. No one forced them to "hold their nose". They had the choice between the RINO and a Conservative.
Looks like the vast majority of non-Democrats in NY 23 value the opinion of "Limbaugh, Palin, Minutemen, Teapartiers and Co." over the minority musings of you, the RNC elitists and RINOcrats.
Hoffman was close to a win, Dede never had a chance. She merely succeeded in sucking away the few voters Hoffman needed for a win (not to mention absentee ballots that were cast much earlier and were lost for him). If the GOP had any braincells working, they'd learn from this episode that they should stick with the Conservative in the first place instead of fooling around with RINO spoilers that have no chance in the first place.
I'm no troll. I've posted here longer than you...Probably donated more money here too. I'm a conservative who is no longer satisfied with losing with principles.
Cheers!
because you have republican voters like you have democrat voters who voted for scuzzy because she had the R.
NY23 has a big loser. Mr. Steele is the big looser. He must resign.
The RNCC must be purged.
Time to clean house. They elected a RINO who betrayed the Republicans.
See my recent posting history for the history of NY-23, which refutes your defeatism.
Cheers!
Hoffman’s rapidly growing support was stunning given there was only three weeks to campaign for him. It’s a strong indication Conservatives and the Tea Party movement are done with the OP(formerly the GOP) and are force to be reckoned with in the future. The OP candidate, Scozzafava, took votes from the Conservative candidate.
I have posted numerous times how conservatives need to take over the Republican Party from the inside.
NY-23 is a great example where the local, state and national GOP are not aligned with conservative values.
Conservatives tried to force the issue with Hoffman, but we fell short.....just like with Toomey.
We will continue to fall short if running a third choice or imposing a candidate on a district is our only tactic.
Like it or not, we need the political machine as much as it needs us. So far, conservatives have fed the machine, but we were never really allowed to operate the machine.
Conservatism wins when we can explain our positions, not when we throw a choice out there and hope for the best.
Toomey and Hoffman lost their races because they did not have the machine with them.
Toomey and Hoffman also lost their races because conservatives, too often, sit on their asses and don’t vote.
We think that between FR and talk radio, all conservatives are “tuned-in” to what is happening.....they are not.
Many conservatives are just like the average person who gets their news from the TV and can tell you the entire lineup of the the Steelers and Penn State but not who their local representative in Harrisbug is.
Conservatives need to look ourselves in the mirror and admit to some reality.....and stop blaming everybody else for our losses and position within the GOP.
Reagan set the stage for conservatives to infiltrate and take over the GOP. Instead, we sat back and thought we had the power.
Instead, the same moderates who ran the party and blocked Reagan in 1976 were still running the show.
Until we run the show, we will never have the political success we desire. We cannot build a new third-party due to the obstacles involved. The GOP is our home, like it or not.
Our house needs renovating....that’s all. offman were correct, read the following.
GOP pickup seats in Stamford, Norwich; hold their own in major Democrat towns
I agree completely. Reagan understood this. Rush and Mark Levin (probably the smartest guy on radio) agree.
Take back the state parties and the national party. The GOP needs to offer an alternative between Socialist (Dem) and Socialist Lite (current GOP).
Third parties are a disaster right now. We might be politically active and involved but the vast majority is not. That is why the vote is split.
Take back the GOP!
This is how GOP chair Ray Bliss rebuilt the GOP after the colossal failure of Goldwater in 64...it took 30 years to win national majorities in 94...but it worked.
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