Sarah Palin, and other strong conservatives, endorsed Doug Hoffman when he ran on the New York Conservative Party line, because the GOP Establishment wanted RINO Dede Scozzavave in NY’s 23rd district. Was Sarah Palin wrong to endorse Hoffman?
Now don’t get me wrong, I hear you. I quit the NY Conservative Party because they are only against partial-birth infanticide, and back pro-”choice” candidates (as well as pro-life candidates). HOWEVER, when they do something right like support CONSERVATIVE Doug Hoffmann, and CONSERVATIVE Wendy Long, we should not discourage the NY Conservative Party at that time, or take it out on the candidates.
I like Bob Turner, too, but when I listened to the forum, he said he was for a debt ceiling increase, and Wendy Long is NOT. Plus Wendy Long is an incredible candidate, and I started this thread about her, if anyone is interested:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2898552/posts
“Was Sarah Palin wrong to endorse Hoffman?”
100% not!
Me, Carl Paladino, Erie County Republicans and the Erie County Conservatives had a press conference endorsing her today. I like Wendy more than anyone else out there. Screw Limbaugh and his endorsement and Guliani.
Apples and oranges. In the 2009 NY-23 special election there was no GOP primary—Dede Scozzafava was hand-picked (Michael Long style) by RINO party hacks from the counties in the district—or primaries for any party. Long wasn’t showing disrespect to voters by handpicking a conservative such as Hoffman for the CP nomination, since the special-election rules forbade primaries.
In addition, Scozzafava was the candidate for which the name “DIABLO” (Democrat In All But Label Outright) was created by Mark Steyn. Bob Turner is a conservative, as proven by the fact that the worst thing you can say about him is that he doesn’t oppose raising the debt ceiling.
What Long is doing for the Senate race is nothing like what he did during the NY-23 2009 special election, but it is exactly what he did in the NY-23 2010 regular election. There was going to be a GOP primary between two conservatives—Doug Hoffman and Matt Doheny—but Mike Long decided to give the CP nomination to Hoffman prior to the GOP primary to try to blackmail NY-23 Republican primary voters to vote for Hoffman over Doheny or else risk having the conservative vote split in the general. Well, GOP voters told Long to stick it and nominated Doheny, and Long’s CP once again was nothing but a spoiler party helping Democrats beat conservative Republicans. Hoffman eventually discontinued his campaign, but stayed on the ballot, and his 6.1% of the vote cost the GOP the election, with liberal Democrat Bill Owens beating Doheny by 47.5%-46.4%. Nice job there, Long.
The CP should either hold primaries, or Long should wait until the other parties hold primaries before hand-picking the CP nominee. If Long keeps this crap up, the CP will go the way of the Liberal Party, losing its accreditation because they nominated a loser who can’t get 5% statewide after losing the GOP primary.