Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Conservative Hoffman vs. RINO Scozzafava: 'We have her on the run!'

Doug Hoffman says his campaign in upstate New York's 23rd District is "squeezing" liberal Republican Dede Scozzafava in a three-way special election.

"There's only 20 days left . . . but we have her on the run," Hoffman told reporters, bloggers and conservative activists in a conference call Wednesday afternoon.

Running on the Conservative Party line, Hoffman's candidacy has hammered Scozzafava's extremely liberal voting record during her 11 years in the state assembly. And, as the Politico reported today, the GOP establishment's hand-picked candidate is rumored to be short on campaign cash, creating a legitimate opportunity for Hoffman to win the Nov. 3 special election.

"As a third-party candidate, I can win this race," Hoffman said, emphasizing that, with less than three weeks left until the election to succeed Rep. John McHugh in the 11-county district, fund-raising is essential. "We need to raise money to get the message out."

On his campaign Web site, Hoffman announced a fund-raising target of $125,000 this week. Noting that his opponent has previously been supported by ACORN and is currently a favorite of the liberal Daily Kos blog, Hoffman said his campaign has been "adopted" by the grassroots conservative Tea Party movement.

Hoffman has been endorsed by the "9/12" organization -- the political arm of the Tea Party movement, which staged major rallies on Sept. 12, including the 9/12 March On DC -- and says the grassroots activists are the foot soldiers of his campaign.

He recently held "six regional meeting with the Tea Party people," Hoffman said, and many visitors to his Web site have made online contributions of $9.12. The conservative Red State blog recently a $250,000 fund-raising goal for Hoffman's campaign.

In addition to Tea Party activists and major conservative blogs, Hoffmans third-party candidacy has also been endorsed by a broad range of free-market and social-conservative organizations, including the Club For Growth, the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List, and the Political Action Committee of the American Conservative Union, which hosted Wednesday's conference call. The ACU's David Keene called the New York special election "an incredibly important race."

Political insiders now view Scozzafava as a certain loser. Her liberal GOP candidacy has not attracted either voter support or campaign contributions and she is being outspent 12-to-1 in TV ads by Democrat Bill Owens. Hoffman suggested favoritism as the most likely explanation why the New York state GOP picked Scozzafava out of nine candidates seeking the Republican nomination in the Nov. 3 special election.

"It was an anointment . . . The party bosses, the lords of the backroom, made this selection," Hoffman said.

5 comments:

  1. I wrote a piece on NY-23 yesterday (http://www.newmajority.com/electing-moderate-dems-could-benefit-conservatives).

    Obviously, if the Democrat ekes out a plurality victory, it'll be Recrimination City. But, the Democrat is not Maurice Hinchey, so the Conservative Party of NY and conservatives in general are feeling their oats and rolling the dice in this election, and I can't really blame them (blame us?).

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  2. NY is famous for anointments. In fact, if I recall, the GOP can forego primaries and just select the candidate. I remember this because I went down to the polls during a primary and there were no GOP candidates for the office I wanted to vote for.

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  3. Watertowndailytimes.com has local coverage of the race (my former boss is the editor there)

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  4. Conservative Rupublican WomanThu Oct 15, 11:05:00 AM

    After seeing the new poll out this morning, you would think the Republican leadership in our District would do the right thing and have Dede DROP OUT of the race.

    Owens(D)33%, Scozzafava(R)29% & Hoffman(C) 23%

    There are too many Republicans here who would never vote for a social liberal.

    The new poll today shows a conservative Republican on the ticket would easily beat the Democrat when you combine the votes for Dede and Doug Hoffman.

    What was the Republican party thinking running HER??!! Maybe, "How do we lose the district?" They are clueless!! (Shows just how out of touch they are with the voters of this district)

    Send your money to Doug Hoffman, (who by the way is also a Republican), not the Republican party.

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  5. Time to clean house.

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