NY23: 'Mischief' by ACORN?

That's what Doug Hoffman says and, while Jude Seymour and Politico are skeptical, I've got a few insights at he American Spectator:

My own source suggested last week that it is unlikely that Hoffman's margin in those absentee ballots would be enough to erase the 3,026-vote gap. However, the need to ensure an accurate count, and to expose any potential illegalities, is still very important. If anyone has committed criminal wrongdoing in this upstate New York district, they need to be identified and prosecuted.
Furthermore, the narrowing of the gap by more than 2,300 votes between the reported results on Election Night and the actual vote tally shows how misreporting can affect political outcomes. If the reported margin had been narrower -- and especially if the tallies in Oswego and Jefferson had been accurately reported -- Hoffman never would have conceded that night.
Most of all, the discovery of the errors (or "mischief") in the vote-count makes it a near-certainty that Hoffman will challenge Owens in NY23 in 2010.

Read the whole thing. (Hat-tip: Memeorandum.)

NY23: Please, God, let it end tonight

All you can do at this point is to get out the vote and pray:

Michelle Malkin is one of the few people you're likely to see on TV tonight who actually knows what it means. . . .
Last night, Malkin warned readers to be ready to watch Democrats and their media allies downplay an expected "conservative surge" in this off-off-year election.
OK, I can cope with that. . . . What I genuinely dread, however, is the possibility of vote-fraud shenanigans. Last night, I heard Hoffman spokesman Rob Ryan repeat his warnings about the danger of ballot-box mischief. And now ACORN whistleblower Anita Montcrief is worried, too. . . .

Read the whole thing. And pray. Pray hard.

Update (Smitty): NiceDeb has the details.

NY23: Live from Watertown, N.Y.

Actually, there's not much happening here. I'm poaching the lobby computer at the Best Western Carriage House Inn where I am not a guest. But Gina the night clerk doesn't know that. She just brought me a fresh cup of coffee. (Shame? We don't need no stinkin' shame!)

That big poll news? Just got off the phone with Pat Austin, who's blogging NY23:

Allahpundit notes the poll with the reminder that this isn't actually a Daily Kos poll - they just paid for it. The pollster, Research 2000 is reliable. In addition, he says "Remember too that the campaigns have been whispering for the past week that internal polls show a two-man race now with Scozzafava fading. Consider this confirmation."

Oh, ye of little faith! We're linked at American Power and, meanwhile, Jimmie's got the complete NY23 roundup at NTC News.

More news at Memeorandum. I'd love to stay and blog more, but Gina (an undecided voter who supported Hillary in the '08 primaries) might start getting suspicious and my buddy Ali and the Campaign Trail crew expect me in Lake Placid before dawn.

NY23: Hey, college conservatives, are you up for a Hoffmania weekend road trip?

OK, I'm close to finalizing plans for my own road trip to cover the crucial special election in upstate New York's 23rd District, leaving Thursday morning. Now what I'm wondering is this: Are any conservative college students planning to go up to volunteer this weekend for the Doug Hoffman campaign?

Watch this video of Hoffman volunteers Jeremy Kain and Tony Maglione, recorded last Friday:

If you're a conservative student who has been wondering what you can do to make a difference, the Hoffman campaign needs you. Maybe your Mom and Dad are conservatives who are fed up with RINO sellouts in the GOP establishment, and they'll help pay your way to upstate New York.

This is the last weekend before Election Day Nov. 3, and there's lots of work to do. All you have to do is get up there and contact the Hoffman campaign, and you'll be in the middle of the biggest election of the year. Please read:

• NY23: 'Do You Believe in Miracles'?
• Doug Hoffman, Ordinary American
• Ordinary Americans Make Miracles Happen
• Hoffman Campaign Seeks 'Boots On the Ground' vs. ACORN
• Memo to the Grassroots: Stop Asking What You Can Do, and Start Doing What You Can
• EXCLUSIVE PROFILE: Conservative Doug Hoffman: 'Citizen Who's Had Enough'

HOFFMANIA: CATCH IT!

Our complete coverage of the NY23 special election

NY23: The two-week turnaround

My latest American Spectator column:

What a difference two weeks can make. Toward the end of an Oct. 14 conference call organized by David Keene of the American Conservative Union, congressional candidate Doug Hoffman plaintively asked, "Does anybody know how to get Glenn Beck interested in this?"
Monday afternoon, Hoffman was interviewed on Beck's popular Fox News program, evidence of the surging momentum the Conservative Party candidate has experienced in the three-way special election campaign in update New York's 23rd District.
In the past six days, Hoffman has been endorsed by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Sen. Jim DeMint, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, former National Republican Congressional Campaign chairmen John Linder and Tom Cole…
The complete list of Hoffman endorsers is a long one, and seems to include nearly every Republican except Newt Gingrich and Dede Scozzafava, the later of whom is Hoffman's opponent, and the former her only prominent supporter. . . .

Please read the whole thing. Often in the past few days, I've thought about that Oct. 14 conference call. Lisa De Pasquale sent me a message at 3:07 p.m. that afternoon asking me to be on the 3:30 p.m. call. She didn't even tell me what it was about, but it's never a smart idea to say "no" to Lisa.

Who else was on that call? John Hawkins, I know, was one of the dozen or so bloggers on the call, and he can testify to the sense of urgency that came across so clearly. Hoffman's team believed they had the momentum. What they didn't have was (a) media and (b) money. If they could get the media attention, the money would come.

The next day, Oct. 15, the Siena poll verified that Hoffman was surging. That afternoon, I called Lisa and asked if she could get me contact info for Hoffman's staff, which she did. Early Friday, I got some little tidbits of news from them, and decided to work up a long profile piece that night. That was well-received, so I dug in on the NY23 beat and, by the night of Tuesday, Oct. 20, had already laid out my itinerary for my road trip.

First road trip, that is. I'm planning to go back tomorrow and, good Lord willing, will stay all the way through to Election Night, Nov. 3. Having seen this campaign take off like a rocket in the past two weeks, I don't want to miss the moon landing. So please contribute to the Shoe Leather Fund.

Last week's trip was more than 1,300 miles. At 20 cents per mile, that's $260. However, my 20-year-old daughter's car broke down Monday night, and she'll need the KIA Optima to get back and forth to work and college. So figure $75 a day for me to rent a car, for six days -- leaving Thursday, returning Oct. 4 -- that's $450.

As usual, two packs of cigarettes per day ($5 x 2 x 6 = $60 for the trip) and six cups of coffee a day ($2 x 6 x 6 = $72), plus two $5 fast-food meals daily ($5 x 2 x 6 = $60). It's possible I may be able to get a break on lodging for this trip, crashing free in Lake Placid with the 73wire crew through Saturday, and another reporter who's going up to the 23rd District said I can split a room with him Sunday-Tuesday ($70 x 3 = $210).

Total ballpark estimate = $1,200. Roughly $200 a day, start-to-finish. But don't think about the big numbers. Just think about $5, $10, $20, $50. If the Hoffman campaign could raise $116,000 in small donations in a single day, I ought to be able to clear $1,200 easy in the next few days, even without a Sarah Palin endorsement.

NY23: Club for Growth poll shows Hoffman (31%) now leading Democrat Owens (27%), Scozzafava third (20%)

Press release from Club for Growth:

A poll released today by the Club for Growth shows Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman surging into the lead in the special election in New York's 23rd congressional district to replace John McHugh, the former congressman who recently became Secretary of the Army.
The poll of 300 likely voters, conducted October 24-25, 2009, shows Conservative Doug Hoffman at 31.3%, Democrat Bill Owens at 27.0%, Republican Dede Scozzafava at 19.7%, and 22% undecided. The poll's margin of error is +/- 5.66%. . . .

Read the rest. The poll details are online in PDF format. This could be considered an "internal" poll, but it's the only poll released to date that fully refelects the "call the cops" meltdown by Scozzafava and the Palin endorsement. We're still waiting for the Quinnipiac numbers and the Thursday release of the next Siena poll.

UPDATE: At The American Spectator, Jim Antle writes:

Important caveats: The sample size is small, the undecided vote is large, Hoffman's lead is well within the nearly 6 percent margin of error, and the Club for Growth has endorsed Hoffman.

Of course -- grain-of-salt time. The most important thing in these numbers, however, is the indication that the liberal Republican Scozzafava has slipped into third place.

Remember that NY23 has consistently voted 2-to-1 for the conservative Republican Rep. John McHugh. So if GOP voters in the district perceive Scozzafava as a likely loser, you can expect a decisive shift toward Hoffman by Republican voters whose main concern is not to give Nancy Pelosi another Democratic vote.

If such a shift occurs, and Hoffman gets 60% of the GOP vote, that would likely put him at about 40% -- neck-and-neck with the Democrat Owens in a three-way race, with Scozzafava getting about 20%.

UPDATE II: Filling in for Allahpundit on the pessimism beat, Ed Morrissey says:

Republicans usually win this district easily, so a 4-point lead over a Democrat is still worrisome -- and this is just one poll. Twenty-two percent undecided voters will make the difference.

"Worrisome"? Not really. Hoffman has low name ID, while Scozzafava is part of the GOP leadership team in the NY Assembly. Scozzafava is especially well-known in her legislative district, but that has only about a quarter of the voters in the congressional district. Once Republican voters get the idea that (a) Hoffamn is the conservative, and (b) Scozzafava is a loser, the vote-shift toward Hoffman should be decisive.

An outcome in the range of Hoffman 45%, Owens 35%, Scozzafava 20% is easily possible. There is a TV debate this week, but you aren't likely to have enough public polling afterward to be able to project the final Election Day numbers. Hoffman's had a solid week of good news, and his staff are optimistic, but working hard and keeping their fingers crossed.

Now a Memeorandum thread. We're linked by Reaganite Republican and by Fisherville Mike, who once worked for the guy who's now managing editor of the Watertown (N.Y.) Daily Times.

HOFFMANIA: CATCH IT!

Our complete coverage of the NY23 special election

NY23: Pawlenty and Huckabee MIA?

Rachelle Friberg points out:

Tim Pawlenty and Mike Huckabee have something in common other than the fact that they are prominent Republican men. The commonality these men share is the fact that they have yet to endorse the third-party Conservative Party candidate, Doug Hoffman in New York's 23rd District Race. . . .

Read the whole thing. I don't know what Pawlenty's excuse is; perhaps Huckabee's Fox News contract might prevent him from openly endorsing candidates. But as TPM notes, Huckabee did everything but endorse Hoffman during an appearance last week on Neil Cavuto's show:

"Certainly his views represent more closely to mine," said Huckabee. "I'm not taking a role in that with my PAC, simply because I feel like it would be inappropriate with me at this point -- mainly because I'm already speaking to the Conservative Party next week. But it is not an endorsement speech, it is an awards speech, and I don't want to get the two confused."

Speaking of liberal Republican candidate Dede Scozzafava, Huckabee said he couldn't "support somebody who does not believe that every human life has value and meaning," and also criticized Scozzafava's support for the TARP bailout. Here's the video:

Huckabee will speak Tuesday in Syracuse at the Conservative Party's annual recognition dinner. I haven't spoken to Mrs. Other McCain yet about plans for further coverage of the NY23 special election, but if y'all want me to go back, please contribute to the Shoe Leather Fund.

Actually, I might need to start calling it the "New Tire Fund." This last road-trip was more than 1,300 miles, and the tires on the 2004 KIA Optima are starting to look a little worn, which could be risky when I'm making the Watertown-to-Plattsburgh run at 95 mph.

Y'all may think I'm kidding about how fast I drive when I'm in a hurry (and I'm always in a hurry) but I take notes while I'm on the road to help me keep track of where I was and what I was doing during my trips.

At 1:53 p.m. Friday, I left Watertown, N.Y., en route to Saranac Lake. At 2:41, I stopped at Nice 'n' Easy Shoppe #2802 in Harrisville, and 12 minutes later -- at 2:53 --was on the road again. By 3:46, I was at Tupper Lake, 60 miles to the east. Google Maps estimates the drive time as an hour and 31 minutes, but I did it in 53 minutes -- on a two-lane highway clogged with slow-moving morons and where some small towns have local speed limits as low as 30 mph.

And to the old lady in the burgundy Ford Probe who flipped me off when I blew past her on State Route 3: I forgive you.

HOFFMANIA: CATCH IT!

UPDATE: Just scored an exclusive for The American Spectator: Hoffman Campaign Seeks 'Boots On the Ground' vs. ACORN.

Linked at Memeorandum. Meanwhile the Reaganite Republican blog comments:

For the Republicans to offer such a liberal candidate as Dede Scozzafava -- thereby inspiring this competitor from the NY Conservative Party -- truly boggles the mind . . . and sure helps make the case that the GOP is often out-of-touch with the party's base

.Our complete coverage of the NY23 special election

NY23: Hoffman says, 'Take back the party!'

In a column for the New York Post:

At this time, three months ago, I was wrestling with a decision. A decision as to whether or not to run in a special election to fill the seat vacated by the new secretary of the Army, John McHugh. If you had told me 90 days later I would be penning an op-ed piece for the New York Post, I would have laughed in disbelief. I would have laughed even louder had you told me that I would be receiving endorsement and support from political leaders like Fred Thompson, former Majority Leader Dick Armey, or Sarah Palin . . .
You see I’m not a professional politician; I've never sought elected office. I grew up poor in Saranac Lake, in the heart of the Adirondacks. My siblings and I were raised in a single-parent household by our mother. We worked to help her pay the mortgage. But, like so many others in this great land, I worked hard, got a good education, did a six-year stint in the military, married, landed a good job with a "big eight" accounting firm and started living the American dream.
It's funny what can happen in America, when you are able to dream and have the courage to follow your dreams. . . .

Read the whole thing. What Hoffman says about not being a "professional politician" is very important. Doug Hoffman's campaign has been likened to Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, but it could also be compared to Revenge of the Nerds.

Watching Hoffman get introduced at events Thursday by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey -- gregarious, extroverted, a natural-born Texas-style storyteller -- was a stark contrast. Hoffman is a quiet man who has never had any direct involvement in politics, and it shows. His speeches aren't a memorized list of talking-points and well-timed applause lines.

If it's slick speech-making and "charisma" you're looking for, that ain't Doug Hoffman. I've said before that some guys (e.g., Bill Clinton) go into politics for the same reason teenage boys learn to play guitar. IYKWIMAITYD. And that ain't Doug Hoffman, either. If he's elected to Congress, Hoffman will instantly become No. 1 on any list of "Washington Politicians Least Likely to Be Involved in a Sex Scandal." The guy's an accountant, for crying out loud.

However, if you study his life story -- Hoffman took a job pumping gas at age 14 to help support his family -- you understand that, beneath his nerdy exterior, there is a man of real character. And his willingness to step up to the plate and take on the GOP Establishment in this special election is another example of that.

Conservatives nowadays often complain that we don't have "another Reagan," but maybe that's not what we need. Maybe what we really need is a grassroots movement so powerful, so energized, that it doesn't have to wait around for the next Ronald Reagan to show up. (See "Memo to the Grassroots.")

Maybe what we need is a grassroots so fired up it can elect a real conservative, even if he isn't a telegenic media superstar or a dynamic public speaker.

HOFFMANIA: CATCH IT!

UPDATE: Linked by Pat Austin at So It Goes in Shreveport, by Donald Douglas at American Power, and by Al B. at Free Republic. Meanwhile:

• I blogged about Rachelle Friberg's question of where 2012 GOP contenders Tim Pawlenty and Mike Huckabee stand on the Hoffman campaign.
• The Politico reports that the national Republican Party "leaders" are planning to spend big bucks attacking Hoffman, with a "top GOP official" derogating the Hoffman campaign in a way that Erick Erickson finds insulting.
• Please see my latest Hot Air Greenroom post, "Ordinary Americans Make Miracles Happen -- Start Doing What You Can!"

Our complete coverage of the NY23 special election

NY23: Hanging with Jeremy and Tony; Can You Volunteer for Hoffman Campaign?

Just in case anyone didn't see the video I shot Friday in the Plattsburgh, N.Y., office of the Doug Hoffman campaign, I've now posted it in the Hot Air Greenroom. And here's a photo of Hoffman volunteers Jeremy Kain and Tony Maglione chilling out after Friday's meeting:

These two guys are buddies from Plattsburgh -- they know each other from attending St. Peter's Church -- and when Tony held a Hoffman fund-raiser at his house in September, Jeremy was one of the guys he invited. So now these two average citizens are at Ground Zero in a campaign of national significance.

When I arrived at the Hoffman headquarters in Saranac Lake earlier Friday, I was frankly surprised that the office wasn't swarming with College Republican volunteers and Tea Party activists from across the country. There were about a half-dozen people in the office. Phones were ringing off the hook, people were walking in to ask where they could get yard signs, and there was an obvious need for more volunteers to help out with the campaign.

The Hoffman campaign is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for people to get involved in an election that could make a huge national impact. Maybe you're a college student. Maybe you're a retiree. Maybe you're just an ordinary working American who's tired of watching the GOP Establishment run roughshod over the conservative grassroots.

The message is simple: The Hoffman campaign needs you. If you can take a few days off work to go help out in NY23, they'll find something for you to do -- answering phones, distributing yard signs, canvassing precincts, whatever. Just contact the Hoffman campaign and tell them you want to come help. Here's that video one more time:

HOFFMANIA: CATCH IT!

Our complete coverage of the NY23 special election

NY23: Hoffman takes no-pork pledge

Which might not be totally popular with some locals:

Rep. John M. McHugh won a reputation as a friend of Fort Drum by securing tens of million of dollars in congressional earmarks that may have helped save the post from closure in 2005.
Douglas L. Hoffman, the Conservative seeking to replace him, has sworn to oppose just those sorts of projects if elected to Congress.
To obtain the endorsement, and campaign cash, of the conservative Club for Growth, Mr. Hoffman signed a statement promising not to request earmarks, which the group defines as any spending requested by only one chamber of Congress or not requested by the White House. By that definition, a total of $114 million in construction at Fort Drum -- including weapons training facilities, improvements at Wheeler-Sack Army Airfield and a family support center -- would not have been built this decade.
Sixteen projects at Fort Drum since 2000 have met the definition of earmarks followed by the Club for Growth and were listed in the annual Congressional Pig Book published by an allied group, Citizens Against Government Waste. . . .

Read the whole thing in the Watertown (N.Y.) Daily Times. All pork is local, eh? You can see a PDF of Hoffman's no-pork pledge here.

HOFFMANIA: CATCH IT!

Our complete coverage of the NY23 special election

NY23: Triumphant return?

No, not for Dede "Abramoff" Scozzafava, but for me. Just pulled off I-87 about 40 miles north of Albany, N.Y. to file a quick note about my three-day trip to cover the Doug Hoffman campaign in the upstate New York special congressional election.

Departed my home Wednesday -- "I'm leaving today" -- and that afternoon phoned into Jimmie Bise my first exclusive: "All aces" for the Hoffman campaign. About 8:30 that evening, Jimmie blogged about Dick Armey's trip to NY23, while I was hanging out with the Freedomworks chairman at a meeting in Cicero, N.Y.

Thursday morning, I filed an American Spectator exclusive from Watertown, N.Y., and Jimmie picked it up here. A few hours later, I linked Hoffman's interview with the Watertown newspaper.

Thursday afternoon, I reported on Armey and Hoffman's Syracuse news conference for the Spectator, and blogged it here. Then I tried to get some sleep, but woke up and discovered that Sarah Palin had endorsed Hoffman. Meanwhile, Jimmie blogged about a new Hoffman radio ad.

Friday morning, I posted the "Go, Doug, Go" video and urged readers to emulate Dick Armey's objectivity. I posted Hoffman's radio interview with Glenn Beck and then scooped everybody with the $116K Thursday fundraising news.

Four hours of breakneck driving later, I filed from Hoffmania HQ in Saranac Lake, then set a nighttime speed record to make it to the campaign's Plattsburgh office for the video with Jeremy and Tony.

OK, so it's now nearly 2 a.m., and I'm poaching the computer at the business center of the Country Inn and Suites in Lake George, N.Y. When I asked for the key to the business center, the manager assumed I was a guest, and I exercised my right to remain silent. (Advice to would-be reporters: always wear a sports coat.)

Have I done enough? Can I make it home before 10 a.m.? Say a prayer for me. If you've enjoyed the coverage, just hit the tip jar and I'll try to make it back up here next week.

And if anyone wants to be a blog intern . . . well, if you've got a car, that would help. Don't know how much more of this the 2004 KIA Optima can handle. Let's hope New York State Police don't see me coming.

UPDATE (Noon): Just got home. Total round-trip, 1,328 miles. Exhausted. Must sleep.

NY23 VIDEO: Doug Hoffman and the 'fight for the heart and soul of America'

Tonight, I shot a 3-minute video at the Plattsburgh, N.Y., office of the Doug Hoffman congressional campaign. If you care about America, local volunteers Jeremy Kain and Tony Maglione have a message for you:

HOFFMANIA: CATCH IT!

Our complete coverage of the NY23 special election

NY23: Live from Saranac Lake!

Saranac Lake, N.Y., is lovely this time of year. At 1:53 p.m. ET, I left Watertown, 116 miles to the east, with a Google map telling me the drive time would be "about 2 hours, 59 minutes."

Pulled into the parking lot here at 4:16 p.m. ET. Don't tell my wife. Or the New York State Police.

UPDATE: Thanks to Ed Morrissey at Hot Air and Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit for the linky-love, also at Memeorandum. Bloggers linking here should be sure to send the URLs to Smitty for the FMRJA Saturday linkback orgy.

UPDATE II: Just made a quick trip to see Ground Zero of the nationwide viral pandemic:

National headquarters for HOFFMANIA!

Volunteers standing by to take your calls.

Our complete coverage of the NY23 special election

NY23 BULLETIN: Doug Hoffman campaign raised $116K online Thursday

Doug Hoffman campaign spokesman Rob Ryan just called to give me that news.

UPDATE: Given previous reports that the campaign had raised $210,000 in the week ending Tuesday, and estimating more than $30,000 for Wednesday, this puts the Hoffman campaign's online fundraising at about $400,000 in the past nine days.

Want to make it an even $500,000? Every little bit helps.

UPDATE II: Democrat Bill Owens already raised more than $500,000 before this week. If conservatives want to let the Democrats buy this election, that's up to you. Otherwise . . .

Well, I've got to get back on the road if I'm going to make it to Hoffman HQ in Saranac Lake this afternoon. Expect Jimmie Bise to be posting further updates as I report by phone.

Our complete coverage of the NY23 special election

NY23 VIDEO: 'Go, Doug, Go!'

From yesterday in Watertown, N.Y. Dick Armey's endorsement speech for Doug Hoffman is interrupted by chants from supporters.

"Doug saw the need to have a conservative in this race and stepped into the race. I believe that instantaneously made him the front-runner."
-- Dick Armey

Well, you see who supports Doug Hoffman. There's also Mark Levin, the Susan B. Anthony List, Fred Thompson, the Club for Growth, Sarah Palin . . . lots of people.

Who supports Dede Scozzafava? The abortion lobby and labor unions. Only one thing to do: Dump Dede.

HOFFMANIA!

NY23: Hoffman endorses flat tax; Armey hopes 'Republicans will learn a lesson'

Today at a press conference here in Syracuse:

"I got into this race to win it," 23rd District congressional candidate Doug Hoffman said today at a press conference here when asked if he was surprised by his recent surge in the upstate New York special election. "Most of all, I'm surprised by the support we're getting nationwide. . . . It's overwhelming. I never expected it."
Indeed, as endorsements have poured in -- and Michelle Malkin and other conservatives have begun to demand the withdrawal of liberal Republican candidate Dede Scozzafava -- the momentum in NY23 appears to have shifted decisively toward Hoffman.
Hoffman appeared this afternoon with former House Majority Leader Dick Armey at a press conference in front of the Federal Building in Syracuse, where the Conservative Party candidate endorsed the flat tax. "Even though I'm a CPA, the flat tax is the way to create an environment for economic growth," said Hoffman, noting that simplifying the tax code would result in a substantial loss of tax-preparation business for his firm.
Armey said that Scozzafava lost the election "the day she was elected," since her record and policy stances place her far outside the mainstream of the conservative 23rd District. Armey expressed the hope that "the Republicans will learn a lesson" from the defeat of Scozzafava. . . .

Please read the rest at The American Spectator. Dick Armey gave an economics seminar today during the press conference. All you've got to do is say "flat tax" to Armey and he'll go for an hour.

Our complete coverage of the NY23 special election.

National Desk, Syracuse, N.Y., 3:45 p.m.

BREAKING UPDATE: Michelle Malkin demands Scozzafava withdrawal in NY23. Other bloggers join call. The Other McCain finally gets back to his hotel room for working lunch.

Dump Dede. EXPECT UPDATES . . .

UPDATE (1725, Smitty) The Monty Python remain critical of some products mentioned in this post (NSFW).

NY23 UPDATE: Hoffman interview with Watertown (N.Y.) Daily Times

My exclusive about this morning's event with Dick Armey and Doug Hoffman was filed from the offices of the Watertown (N.Y.) Daily Times, with the help of their political reporter Jude Seymour. My new buddy Jude now reports:

We just had a wacky hour at the Watertown Daily Times.
Blogger Robert Stacy McCain, who is following Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman around today, banged out a story at my desk while I was inside the publisher's office watching the fireworks.
John B. Johnson Jr. was clear in this morning's editorial in our paper: The issues germane to the 23rd Congressional District are not being talked about because that discourse is getting drowned out by the cacophony from special interest groups outside the district.
Mr. Hoffman, it appeared, had not taken the time to read the local opinion page before visiting.
When asked about the rooftop highway that could connect Watertown to Plattsburgh, Mr. Hoffman said he was "open to reviewing and studying it."
When asked about winter navigation on the St. Lawrence Seaway, he took no position. When asked about widening and deeping the Seaway, he again said nothing.
The atmosphere was tense, at times. . . .

Ruh-roh. Read the whole thing. I've got the print edition of the Daily Times here with me (I'm now back at my hotel in Syracuse after a 140-mile road trip to Watertown) and the editorial is interesting:

Endorsements come from afar. Fundraisers are held outside the district. National party committees comment daily on the race. National debates on social issues and partisan concerns get rehashed here to the exclusion of questions specific to voters in the 23rd district. . . .

Read all of that, too. All politics is local and so is some of the world's best journalism. It was nice to talk to Jude and some of the other staffers at the Daily Times. Jude is a smart guy, sharp enough to spot me trying to swipe a souvenir coffee mug. (Darn it.)

When I was a small-town journalist in Georgia and a local story would make national news, I hated the way the big national media would come bigfooting into town, treating local reporters like we were bush-leaguers. So when I go out on the road to do reporting, I like to start out by meeting with local reporters, who deserve to be respected for their hard work and knowledge of facts that we outsiders often overlook.

There is a 2:30 p.m. Hoffman event here in Syracuse, so I have to hurry if I'm going to grab some lunch between now and then. Thanks a million to Jimmie Bise for helping out while I'm on the road, taking call-in reports like the one this morning while I was flying south on I-81 coming back from Watertown.

No confirmation yet on Jim Geraghty's Sarah Palin endorsement rumor. We'll see. One thing that I can confirm: David Frum is clueless. But that's not really news, is it?

Our complete NY23 blog coverage here.

UPDATE: Moe Lane at Red State links up with more links.

EXCLUSIVE: Armey endorses Hoffman, "The Republican candidate can't win."

Guest-post by Jimmie Bise of The Sundries Shack.

Here is Stacy's report from Watertown, NY where FreedomWorks' Dick Armey endorsed Doug Hoffman for Congress. Both Hoffman and Armey had a few other things to say about Dede Sozzafava and the grassroots supporters who have given wings to the campaign.

"The Republican candidate can't win," Armey declared, saying that Gingrich "made the wrong choice" in backing Scozzafava, a New York state assemblywoman whose record puts her to the left of most Democrats here in this largely rural district, where Republican Rep. John McHugh routinely won re-election with 2-to-1 margins.
Hoffman will appear this afternoon on the popular Glenn Beck television program and, according to sources with the campaign, has seen his fundraising take off in recent days. He reportedly raised $30,000 online Tuesday, was effectively endorsed by the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday and today received the endorsement of Ohio's Ken Blackwell, a nationally recognized conservative leader.

Click over to the AmSpecBlog and read the whole thing.

Jim Geraghty also dropped an interesting tidbit this morning.

But somebody who seems to be in a position to know what's coming down the pike...tells me that he's hearing Sarah Palin will publicly endorse
Conservative Doug Hoffman...

Who better to follow up on that tantalizing rumor than someone who is up there in the middle of the Hoffman campaign right now?

Expect more exclusive reporting...

UPDATE: Amanda Carpenter has more from Armey and Hoffman and a particularly clueless response from the NRCC.

When asked for comment about the blogger revolt, NRCC spokesman Paul Lindsey stood by his candidate as the only one who could win. “We will continue to remind central and northern New Yorkers that a vote for Doug Hoffman or Bill Owens is a vote for Nancy Pelosi and her far left, radical agendam [sic]" he said in an email.

I'm sorry, which candidate is closest to ACORN and has the endorsement of the largest left-wing blog in the world? I have a hard time remembering...

(Edited to correct NRSC to NRCC. Thanks to Adam for that tip.)

"Everything's all aces now.We've just got to keep it that way."

A guest-post by Jimmie Bise of The Sundries Shack.

The post title is a quote from a source inside the Doug Hoffman campaign, which has managed in the space of one week to turn a barely-noticed special election in upstate New York into a national media event. All the savvy media outlets are converging on New York's 23rd Congressional District, including this blog's very own Stacy McCain.

And what, you may ask, has turned the tide?

The grassroots. A week ago, Hoffman held a conference call during which he practically begged for national traction. According to Stacy, Hoffman had two messages: "We have her on the run" and "We need to raise money to get the message out." Since then, Hoffman's star has been steadily rising, the endorsements have come rolling in, the media outlets have been spinning like they're reporting from a Tilt-A-Whirl, and his Republican opponent Dede Scozzafava has committed gaffe after asinine gaffe. It's gotten so bad that National Review's Jim Geraghty has called for the GOP to demand its money back and pull back completely from Scozzafava (via memeorandum). Indeed, the conservative flagship magazine has gone "all Hoffman, all the time", according to a campaign source.

This morning, the Wall Street Journal published the hardest-hitting editorial against the establishment's hand-picked candidate I've seen yet. Here is the editors' bill of particulars against Ms. Scozzafava:

Democrats want to portray this race as a familiar moderate-conservative GOP split, but the real issue is why Ms. Scozzafava is a Republican at all. She has voted for so many tax increases that the Democrat is attacking her as a tax raiser. She supported the Obama stimulus, and she favors "card check" to make union organizing easier, or at least she did until a recent flip-flop.She has run more than once on the line of the Working Families Party, which is aligned with Acorn. Her voting record in Albany puts her to the left of nearly half of the Democrats in the assembly. She also favors gay marriage, which is to the left of Mr. Obama.

A mark? Oh yes, that'll leave one.

Let us not forget that it was the Working Families Party that attempted to assail employees of AIG in their own homes for the scurrilous crime of accepting bonus payments. After the protest fizzled worse than a sparkler at the bottom of Lake Placid, we learned that the bonuses has been granted with the full knowledge and approval of the very same Obama administration that had demonized the workers so vociferously and that the President himself was a recipient of AIG money. Oops.

There is a chance that the WFP or ACORN will try to get into the game on the side of Scozzofava or the Democratic candidate Bill Owens. Hoffman is concerned about the potential for fraud and has asked the Obama administration to send election observers to make sure things remain on the up-and-up. That's not a vain concern as authorities in nearby Troy, NY have launched a voter fraud investigation involving both the Democratic Party and the Working Families Party. If they worked the election in Troy, they can just as easily work it in NY23.

Hoffman has a series of events planned for tomorrow and Stacy will be there to report on them. In the meantime, Left Coast Rebel has the latest from Stacy as he careens his way north and Da Tech Guy is terribly unimpressed with how the GOP had dug in its heels for Dede.

Me, I say Dump Dede!

There is a lot more coming on this story so, stay tuned and buy the man some new shoe leather, please.

UPDATE: Not even an endorsement from Newt Gingrich has been enough to sway the grassroots toward Scozzafava. Michelle Malkin and Da Tech Guy has rounded their blunderbusses of snark on Newt and given him a snoot full.

Meanwhile, those poll numbers? Oh, they look better by the day.

UPDATE 2: If you want to get the measure of Doug Hoffman for yourself, you'll have a couple chances. He was on Glenn Beck's radio show today and garnered some good words from Rush Limbaugh as well. He'll be on Mark Levin's show tonight at about 8:30 and on Glenn Beck's television show tomorrow night.

I'd say the big grassroots push is working, but there's no time for cheering. We have a conservative to get into Congress.