Posted on 10/22/2009 9:23:24 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The congresswoman takes sides against a Republican candidate, and rumor is the former governor may too.
As a rule, special elections held to fill open congressional seats aren't the most exciting events. But the campaign in New York's 23rd congressional district is starting to get pretty interesting, with an intra-party squabble on the Republican side of things getting more juice by the day.
The district leans Republican, and the seat has been in the GOP's hands to this point -- the race is being held because Rep. John McHugh resigned when President Obama named him secretary of the Army. But it's still upstate New York, which may be more conservative than the state as a whole but is still pretty moderate by comparison to other Republican-dominated areas of the country. So the party chose a moderate, State Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava, as its nominee. That enraged conservative activists, who've given their support instead to third-party candidate Doug Hoffman.
Scozzafava still enjoys the support of establishment Republicans, but her campaign's been imploding quite publicly lately under the strain of Hoffman's candidacy. Now, the independent is getting a further boost as the GOP continues to splinter over the race. In an appearance on Laura Ingraham's radio show Wednesday, Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., appeared to endorse Hoffman, saying, "Hoffman is on the ascendancy,” she said, “and we have to win this seat, and people need to get behind the winning candidate, and it looks like that’s Hoffman.” (As David Weigel points out, Hoffman's actually polling in third place; the Democrat, Bill Owens, is in first place.)
Bachmann has a fair amount of conservative supporters these days. But she doesn't have anything close to the star power of another woman rumored to be ready to endorse Hoffman: former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
At this point, even an endorsement from Palin probably wouldn't be enough to put Hoffman over the top. But it could certainly have an impact, if not on this race than on the candidates Republicans pick for 2010; the national party would probably be forced to go farther to the right than it would like in some areas, which could benefit Democrats.
Sarah Palin has good reason to be crossways with the GOP. That mutt John McCain and his flunkies stabbed here in the back repeatedly. Even after Obama was elected McCain was still trying to undermine her.
I’m a Republican, but it is getting harder and harder to remain in the Party.
It’s a hell of a note that we have to defeat not only the Democrats but the RINOs like Gingrich who I’ve lost just about all respect for, who push these “big tent kum-by-yah” theories of how to win elections.
I see another guiding light with Sarah Palin. She’s picking her battles carefully, and I think with the purpose of building credibility as the leader of the Conservative (not “party” and not “wing of the Republican party”) - movement that is rapidly coalescing.
Let her school Mr. Speaker and a few other RINOs as to who’s the new power broker on the Right, then we’ll see whether Michael Steele and Co. are any smarter than they act sometimes. A Hoffman win after a Palin endorsement would be a very nice start.
I will take dairy country over the “sophistication” of San Fran, Silly CON Valley or Marin County any day.
That’s not what I meant, but look at Lindsay Graham’s attack on Ron Paul a fellow Republican, and the Constitution Party where Tom Tancredo will speak this week. The Tea Party.
We have Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins backing a conceptual bill not in legislative language with a single payer government monopoly, this 23rd NY Congressional race is .
They aren’t willing to back Conservative candidates at all, the RNC wants these go along types in office to help the Democrats accomplish their goals, they aren’t fighting them. It’s us, the Tea Party’s, the Grassroots, the Outsiders, and Talk Radio that are giving them headaches. The Michelle Bachmann’s, Ron Paul’s, Sarah Palin’s, and Jim Demint’s are too rare.
Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann, two American patriots with more balls than the rest of the GOP combined and doubled.
I can’t speak highly enough of these ladies.
Thank God for them.
As far as I can see, the only thing that would benefit demorats is allowing the GOP to remain in the same namby-pamby, sissified, gutless wonder, stand for nothing hands that it remains in now.
Don’t include L Ron Paul’s name with Palin.
Paul is anti war, wound not vote to condemn
Ahmadinejad, does not support Israel,
most of his supporters are 9/11 Truthers
Sarah Palin understands the IslamOfascists declared war
on America. Her son just returned from Iraq.
She is a great supporter of Israel
1) Dede is not a moderate.
2) Sources from Republican and Democrat insiders in this race are indicating to multiple news outlets their polling indicates Hoffman is now in second place.
3) The most vulnerable Democrat’s in races next year on the House side at least represent conservative or conservative leaning districts. The majority of those races are infact favporable to a conservative. The GOP has been trying to fill them with Liberals. They sense a GOP tidal wave and wish to fill those slots with more Liberal blood. Conservatives forcing conservatives to be picked can only help the GOP in those races.
Conservatives must root out the leftists in the party. This is one way of doing that.
moderate?? Thats no moderate.
Meanwhile Michael Steele says he isn't concerned about the fact that Party identification has fallen to 20%. He damn well better get concerned. He is responsible for the Republican Brand. Lack of Party ID means that the rage Conservatives and Independents are feeling over our Banana Republic trajectory is going to be channeled into vote-splitting exercises in failure. Fred Thompson, Sarah Palin, and Michelle Bachman have decided to stand for principle instead of Party -- but why should there need to be a choice?
A most uneducated statement.
The special election in CA23 in the late 1990s to fill our seat had far-reaching consequences[1] ... just as this one will.
[1] It was the beta test for Bush's "Compassionate Conservatism".
Interesting to note that Tim Pawlenty said he doesn’t know anything about the race, and refused to endorse anyone. Real leadership there, Tim. Here I thought he was being touted as the new savior of the party by the beltway types, some of whom have realized that Mitt is a dead end. My bet is that Tim will stay quiet, and not endorse anyone, you know he must be careful, don’t want to take any chances, sit on the fence and wait. That’s exactly why Tim isn’t going anywhere, he’s boring, he stood passively by while ACORN and Franken stole the election, and now he doesn’t have the guts to buck his beltway pals.
Thank you very much. NY is the #3 dairy state in the US. As somebody who develops software for agriculture, I can tell you dairy production management and medicine are on the leading edge of small (and not so small) business technology. I run into people in a lot of parlor offices and barns who know more about computers than the "sophisticates" downstate.
“the national party would probably be forced to go farther to the right than it would like”
The patter or little feet one hears is the symphony of, r’rats on the run.
Rab
If Dede were a 'moderate' Republican, I would have preferred her, given that this is NY and 0bama won the district even though it's a Republican district. However, knowing her positions on issues, I'd prefer--only in this case--Owen win than Dede. Her win will be used as a model for 2010, which will cause the split even worse.
It's not about teaching the Republican elites. It's about both principle and smart politics.
The GOP better be paying attention - democrat lite is NOT acceptable and those who insist it's the only way, are way out of touch with constituent reality.
These two women have conservatives in the palms of their hands, They have the ability (voters' willing) to help us get our country back on the right track.
Who cares? I demand a President who looks after Americans first, whose unquestioned loyalty is to the Constitution of the United States. Only President Reagan has come close to that in my lifetime before he got diverted by all the neocon Barry Soetoro.
Dr. Paul is an America-first sort of guy. If that offends you, maybe you should move to Israel, renounce your blue passport and be done with it.
The only group I despise more than neocons are marxists, but actually it's pretty much a toss up.
Don’t they know that turnout will determine the mid-term elections. Without Obama on the ticket, the black turnout is going to be a lot lower. Our base gets ginned up for Conservatives.
This country has become deeply divided. I pray that we can wage the coming civil war through the ballot box instead of shooting each other up.
If Thompson, Palin, Bachmann manage a bloodless coup on the leadership of the Republican Party and get us back on a sane national track, they will be forever heroes.
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