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No wonder Scozzafava called the cops, Hoffman is gaining fast, Right rallies for upset UPDATED!
By: Mark Tapscott
Editorial Page Editor
10/20/09 6:16 PM EDT
Politicians like far-left New York Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava who have Republican congressional nominations handed to them by local GOP poobahs sometimes turn out to be lousy candidates. Evidence is accumulating fast that such is the case in the rapidly heating-up special election campaign to fill the seat vacated by Rep. John McHugh, R-NY.
New York GOP leaders could have gone with Doug Hoffman, a well-known and successful entrepreneur of clear and unquestioned conservative principles. Instead, they chose Scozzafava, who has been endorsed in years past by ACORN's Working Families Party, and who supports the Obama-Reid-Pelosi agenda across the board, including Big Labor's Card Check proposal to abolish the secret ballot in workplace representation elections.
After being rejected by the GOP leaders, Hoffman received the Conservative Party of New York endorsement and in the last three weeks his campaign has gone from nowhere to gangbusters, as nationwide attention has been focused by the Examiner, veteran conservative political activists like Andy Roth at Club for Growth, and legions of conservative bloggers on a race that is shaping up as possibly of historic consequence.
Richard Viguerie is telling his thousands of activists across the country about the Siena Research Institute's latest survey, which finds a very tight race, with Democrat Bill Owens leading at 33 percent, Scozzafava at 29 percent, and Hoffman at 23 percent.
According to Viguerie, "with just 10 points separating the three candidates, this is likely to be a very tight--and fiercely fought--campaign right through election day. . .(I)t is particularly interesting to note that it is Hoffman who has picked up the most support on every issue over the last two weeks."
Club for Growth is spending a third of a million dollars on advertising for Hoffman, and other conservative and libertarian groups are getting involved in the race. Conservative leaders like Viguerie remember well the Conservative Party of New York's upset victory in electing James Buckley to the U.S. Senate in 1970 in a three-way race not unlike the present contest.
UPDATE: Scozzafava's husband, an AFL-CIO leader, called the cops on reporter
Josh Kraushaar at Politico has the scoop on who made the call to the cops. Turns out it was her husband, who just happens to be a leader of the AFL-CIO in New York, and who has been the political strategist behind her run for Congress in the first place. That fact will bolster those who believe that she plans to switch back to the Democrats after winning the special election as a Republican.
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