Posted on 10/30/2009 6:42:03 PM PDT by nickcarraway
With Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman running neck and neck with the Democrat in Tuesday’s special election in New York, some other disaffected Republicans are seeing the third-party route as more viable.
And it could hurt the Republicans in those races.
In Virginia’s 5th district, state Sen. Robert Hurt’s entry into the GOP primary has spurred little-known candidate Bradley Rees to switch to the Virginia Conservative Party. And in Ohio, another GOP primary contender said this week that he’ll run as a Constitution Party candidate.
Both will go at the GOP nominees from their right flanks and try to expose some unhappiness in conservative ranks. They might not be as well-funded as Hoffman or be filling quite as big a vacuum as the one left by Republican Dede Scozzafava’s left-leaning politcs, but they could steal valuable votes.
Rees isn’t afraid of playing spoiler to the establishment-favorite Hurt. He even suggested his third-party candidacy could help freshman Rep. Tom Perriello (D-Va.) stay in Congress.
“It may amount to only drawing enough votes from the Republican candidate to ensure Tom Perriello a second term,” Rees told the Lynchburg News and Advance.
“If so, so be it. Maybe then the party will understand that we are trying to save the GOP from its worst enemy — not the Democrats, but themselves.”
A similar situation occurred in Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy’s (D-Ohio) district last year, when Republican Steve Stivers lost enough of the vote to conservative third-party candidates to allow Kilroy to win.
And now Stivers, who supports abortion rights, could again be ceding support to his right, in the form of Ron Paul supporter David Ryon. Ryon switched from the GOP to the Constitution Party this week.
It should be noted that Kilroy and Perriello each won by less than 1 percent in 2008, making them among the closest races in the country. In fact, both races were drawn out past Election Day because they were so close.
Those are the races where third-party candidates can make a difference.
It should be noted that neither Ryon nor Rees appears to have cited Hoffman in his announcement, so any connection to the New York race appears to be indirect. But even if they were unaware, the underlying factors that led to their decisions — and Hoffman's — could be troubling for the GOP.
The Tea Party Effect Strikes in Two Key Races for GOP
There. Fixed it.
The GOP better get its ASS in gear or we’ll be drowning in liberal BS forever.
out out damned rino!
The fact that RINO’s are being selected by party bosses in these races make them legitimate targets on that alone.
RINO Hunting Season is Now OPEN!!!
What is with these idiots? If I read this correctly, Steve Stivers was the Republican candidate, got beat out, and now is running again, and again is threatened with a third party conservative.
Steve Stivers is pro-abort, according to this article.
Will they never learn? If he loses again, will they run him a third time?
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Time to let the liberals in the GOP know the fight is on! Get out of the way and stand down or else! |
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This is AWESOME...dont kill the Party...kill the RINO
AMEN! NO BAG LIMIT!
However....the CP of NY is not a third party in the same sense as the Consti Party. The CP has the best plan: they third party when necessary, but they work with and for Republicans when they can. The Const Party has no affinity for any cooperation. They are madder at GOP’ers than the Dems.
I don’t know about the Virginia Const party, but would be curious to see which it is more like.
I’m in Ohio and have never heard of David Ryon. I’ll have to check him out because frankly, I don’t trust that just because someone says they are “conservative” or joins a Conservative or Constitution Party that they are, in fact, conservative....especially when it comes to national security/illegal immigration....Far too many so-called “conservatives” have the same position on amnesty as McCain/Bush.
I’ll up one and raise you two, WE THE PEOPLE strike in two key races for GOP. We’re sick and tired, we have the God given individual rights we allow them the priviledges to represent WE THE PEOPLE. WE ARE THIER BOSSES not the other way around, we will straight thier a##es out and then we will remove the a##es in Washington, PERIOD! We are the new Revolution!
You know, I don’t care anymore if the R party wins or loses. It’s time we started supporting Conservative candidates who are real people that stand for something and sending the elites like Gingrich, Romney, Steele, et al a message.
"Amen, bro!"
Appears? In other words this article is basically nothing more than airy speculation, without empircal foundation.
The editors of "The Hill" must have been on vacation when this article was submitted.
That's why Hoffman's impending victory should not give much boost to third party candidates in general.
>> I don’t care anymore if the R party wins or loses <<
So you don’t care if 0bambi and the Dhims have free rein to ruin the world’s greatest medical system, to create deficits so big as to drive the dollar down to parity with the Bolivian peso, and to engineer a cowardly surrender in the war against Islamic fascism?
No thanks, my FRiend, no thanks.
The OP(Formerly the GOP) is falling apart at the seams.
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