In NY-23 Debate, Dem Fires at 3rd Party Conservative as Republican Fades
EmailIf you want to know who is the candidate to beat in a three-way race, look at who is taking the incoming fire. By this measure, Doug Hoffman of the Conservative Party appears to be the candidate that Democrats are most worried about as he has gone from possible spoiler to contender. My colleague, ABC News’ Teddy Davis, has more: When a three-way congressional race got underway in upstate New York, Democrats relished the thought that a third party was going to spoil the Republican Party’s chances on Nov. 3rd. But now that Hoffman has emerged as the GOP’s best bet for holding the Republican seat, the Democratic candidate, Bill Owens, used a Thursday debate to tie Hoffman to the Club for Growth, an anti-tax group which has backed Hoffman, and ignored the Republican candidate, Dede Scozzafava. “It’s very difficult for me to understand Mr. Hoffman’s position on this issue when he has taken substantial amounts of money from the Club for Growth which stands, in many ways, for the privatization of Social Security. He has said that he wants to go back to the failed Bush economic policies. Those are all issues that are going to drive us backward, not forward,” said Owens. Owens painted Hoffman as the captive of Far Right interests during a debate which took place at the studios of WSYR-TV, an ABC News affiliate, in Syracuse, N.Y. Hoffman responded to the effort to tie him to former President Bush by arguing that Owens would raise people’s taxes. “The failed Bush taxes? Well, is what we want to do is increase taxes then, Mr. Owens?” said Hoffman. “Is that going to help business? Is that going to help create jobs?” Owens says that he favors extending the portion of the Bush tax cuts which benefit the middle class while opposing the portion of the Bush tax cuts which benefit the wealthy. Hoffman has catapulted into contention in New York by portraying the race as a fight for the heart and soul of the Republican Party. Scozzafava, a Republican who supports abortion rights, same-sex marriage, and making union organizing easier, has turned off some conservative Republicans with her more liberal views. Hoffman’s across-the-board conservatism has attracted the support of several Republicans who are eyeing a possible presidential run in 2012 including former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum. “I’m in this race because it’s principle over party. I’m in this race because I’m giving the voters of the 23rd district an option between two liberal candidates and a conservative Ronald Reagan Republican – common-sense conservative. And basically, if I wasn’t in this race, the voters would not have much of a choice,” said Hoffman. “Mrs. Scozzafava talks a lot about the fact that she voted against the budget this year, but how about the nine or 10 years that she approved the higher spending?” he added, referring to her record in the State Assembly. Scozzafava responded to the attacks by arguing that she was the only candidate in the race who would truly represent the district rather than outside interests. She also suggests that Hoffman lacked the conservative value of honesty. “You know, when people talk about values, and conservative values, there is one value that has been sorely lacking in the campaign and that’s called honesty and truth and men that, perhaps, keep their word. I think those are very important values that any sort of representative that is going to Washington should live by,” said Scozzafava. The debate, which was pre-taped, is set to be broadcast at 7:00 pm ET. It was the first such encounter in the race.
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This sure proves how fast the GOP will dump one of it’s own in face of a possible loss, they demand party loyalty but don’t give the same.
Posted by: JR | October 29, 2009, 8:17 pm 8:17 pm
Most of the GOP and definitely all conservatives are happy with that decision. It’s pragmatism versus the partisanship and exclusivity Democrats are experts in.
Posted by: Alexk | October 29, 2009, 9:03 pm 9:03 pm
How funny……you try to paint Hoffman as some sort of radical for accepting contributions from the CFG but first you have to run an advertisement to earn money for ABC’s bottom line.
What a bunch of hypocrites you people are. But what is funnier is that you have a real surprise coming in 2010. Compliments of the American electorate. You fooled us once…….no more.
Posted by: Buffy | October 29, 2009, 10:25 pm 10:25 pm
It about time the people took control back from the career politicions who are running our great country into socialism and global goverment. It’s time to stand for principal at all cost. If you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything.
Posted by: BK | October 29, 2009, 10:37 pm 10:37 pm
[This sure proves how fast the GOP will dump one of it's own in face of a possible loss, they demand party loyalty but don't give the same.
Posted by: JR | Oct 29, 2009 8:17:20 PM]
She is not a Republican, any more than Spector was. And as far as “dumping one of it’s own”–how about that Obamba and his democrat cronies–they dumped on Deeds “anonymously”…saying he was losing because he didn’t grab Obama’s coat-tails hard enough.
The people Obama has dumped under the bus has required a bigger bus…
Posted by: lovingmyUSA | October 29, 2009, 10:39 pm 10:39 pm
This is now an era where party loyalty should be loathed. We need candidates that honor the core values of America over party. Lieberman did it and the voters voted for him and not his party. The party candidates have lost their integrity and are known for rhetoric, white-washing, and spin. It is time for the Americans that are the backbone of this country to make a stand. The parties in power have neglected their duties to Americans and the values that raise the USA above the tyranny of the world. The Americans that are the backbone of America need to retake the seats of power away from those that represent those that push parasitic entitlements and the surrender of the United States of America to ideologies our forefathers gave their lives to keep at bay.
Posted by: TX_MBell | October 30, 2009, 3:37 am 3:37 am
No more Specters. It has destroyed our local finances and federal government. We have to give people a choice. If the dems are going to run and win with Obama’s and Pelosi’s we need more Hoffman’s.
Posted by: Looking for Sanity | October 30, 2009, 8:09 am 8:09 am
This is good for America. A real conservative not in the Republican party is giving both Republicans and Democrats fits. What dems don’t understand is conservatives are conservative first and foremost and found a home with the Republicans because of their fiscally conservative stance. However, that day is over. If the Republicans want to be the democrat party lite, then conservatives will make sure they are never elected. The Republicans must either put forth real conservatives or plan on losing for a generation until they learn their lesson.
Posted by: afkbrad | October 30, 2009, 8:49 am 8:49 am
Am I a Profit or what?! How long have I been predicting that the White House Strategy for 2010 is “Divide and Conquer”? George, how soon can I get a seat an the Round Table? While I certainly enjoy the weekly battle of the Liberal Left against George Will, have you ever had anybody seated at that table who represents the majority of people in this country: the Independents, the Swing Voters, the people who actually decide elections in this country?
Posted by: Jim Jordan | October 30, 2009, 9:06 am 9:06 am
p.s. a Prophet is a person who foretells the future; whereas, a Profit is a hound dog who sniffs out the money trial. In order to be a Profit you don’t have to foretell the future, you just have to follow money trail.
Posted by: Jim Jordan | October 30, 2009, 9:18 am 9:18 am
The U.S. Postal Service was established in 1775 They have had 234 years to get it right and it is broke.
Social Security was established in 1935. They have had 74 years to get it right and it is broke.
Fannie Mae was established in 1938. They have had 71 years to get it right and it is broke.
War on Poverty started in 1964. They have had 45 years to get it right; $1 trillion of our money is confiscated each year and transferred to “the poor” and they only want more.
Medicare and Medicaid were established in 1965. They have had 44 years to get it right and they are broke.
Freddie Mac was established in 1970. They have had 39 years to get it right and it is broke.
The Department of Energy was created in 1977 to lessen our dependence on foreign oil. It has ballooned to 16,000 employees with a budget of $24 billion a year and we import more oil than ever before. They had 32 years to get it right and it is an abysmal failure.
Posted by: Dave | October 30, 2009, 9:26 am 9:26 am
Any member of the House or Senate (or the White House) that will not participate in any bill they want the ‘common people’ to needs to be replaced. The founding fathers never intended to an elite class of rules.
Posted by: deanbob | October 30, 2009, 9:58 am 9:58 am
Dave – and the unfunded (committed but not paid for) liabilities of the Federal govt is over $105 trillion.
Posted by: deanbob | October 30, 2009, 10:02 am 10:02 am
Hoffman is what America needs in every state, in every county, in every town of this great country. A CITIZEN, not a politician, who is concerned about the PEOPLE, not themselves! I am so very tired of the politicians who go to office to get RICH!! It’s a stepping stone to Washington where they REALLY get rich! ENOUGH. ENOUGH! Good luck to Hoffman and all other who have the backbone to DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS RUN AWAY GOVERNMENT SPENDING AND ATTEMPTS TO COMPLETELY CONTROL OUR LIVES!!!!
Posted by: M. Smith | October 30, 2009, 10:26 am 10:26 am
As a Liberal, I hope that Conservatives do take control of the Republican party…
Conservatives have been the source hidden in the Republican party all along… They are the ones the Republicans try to keep catering to.
But, where were those same
Conservatives within the Republican party that sat by and did nothing as Republicans run up the deficit by spending and borrowing and have successfully indebted us to China…
Where were these Conservatives that let Cheney/Bush focus on Iraq in revenge for 911 while intelligence and commanders on the ground were trying to get attention to Afghanistan.
I actually want the Conservatives to show their faces instead of hiding behind the guise of “compassionate conservatism” that even Colin Powell fell for..
Please finally,,, bring them forward… However, it seems strange that they wouldn’t have come out during an administration that they fell in line with as it obviously went astray and in doing so succeeded in bringing down the rest of the country…
But, finally… they are coming forward… Yah!!!
Posted by: theafalcon200 | October 30, 2009, 11:52 am 11:52 am
Honesty is something Obama is desperatly lacking, he has yet to fulfull his campaign promises, or should we say LIES. Dems drank the kool aid and he sucked you in hook, line and sinker. How is that CHANGE working for you now? ROFL
Posted by: HH | October 30, 2009, 12:00 pm 12:00 pm
A clear sihn of things to come. 2010 should be interesting, it is too bad Americans have to choose between the two parties, what a great time for a long shot with real governing ideas, problem is you need money and money sadly rules as with any election and administration. It would be really revealing if the current administration would make public all the paybacks issued after the election, it would make you ill. We need to stop this insanity and I think America is finally starting to wake up, the press should do the same if the Fox example is not enough of a warning to anyone.
Posted by: Dave | October 30, 2009, 12:07 pm 12:07 pm
To theafalcon 200: once again a liberal shooting his mouth off before checking the facts, it was Pres. Clinton who signed Nafta my friend not Bush, that opened the flood gates as Pero indicated. Conservatives want a strong America and most did not agree with Iraq so point your finger in another direction. Now I have indicated before that all these Washington people need to go including Present administration, however if you want the government to control more of your life, tax everyone to the hilt you just keep on going baby anfd your kids will one day ask you why they cannot be what they want to be, because we all will be the same. Amnerica was built on laws, hard work, morals, and values I am tired of paying for people that do not want to work and contribute to society and that is where we are headed. So buy into this political crap of the conservatives and liberals, keep bashing, that will get you no where, but before you state something get the facts straight.
Posted by: Dave | October 30, 2009, 12:14 pm 12:14 pm
Lemme get this straight; a third party candidate is the GOP’s best bet to rekindle the ashes that we once called the Republican party? The word “pathetic” comes to mind. And this buffoon actually touts George Bush’s economic “policies; the same policies, or lack thereof, that put us in the position we are in today? Anybody that would vote for this man must be living in a bubble or severely deficient.
Posted by: DaveM | October 30, 2009, 1:17 pm 1:17 pm
It is time for new people. Just think, Rangel has spent almost $1 million in legal fees to keep a job that pays $174,000.00. Corruption??
Posted by: jamescbuilder | October 30, 2009, 1:47 pm 1:47 pm
Theafalcon200…I too hope that “conservatives” take over the Republican Party with “small battle wins” like this. That is because I know that all of us moderates who left last time…I think most of us are payiny attention to what is going on as the party “purifies” itself. Let them win their small battles and think they are doing something. They will lose the bigger war in the end. And all middle class America will be far better off. That is what happens when small minds take over a Party – they lose touch with reality. LOL They probably still think that the 40 million uninsured is just a bogus figure. They will either eventually learn or become the obsolete minority they deserve to be.
Posted by: CND FOX | October 30, 2009, 2:29 pm 2:29 pm
The race is too funny for words. Now Hoffman’s friends in the Club for Growth dirty tricks division are running clumsy, amatuerish ads urging progressives to vote for Scozzafava. They’re self-destructing in a gloriously noisy fashion. Here’s hoping Hoffman inspires conservative spoilers across the nation to rise up and run!
Posted by: Yukon Sam | October 30, 2009, 2:39 pm 2:39 pm
Has anyone noticed that we are practically out of a recession (almost depression) that could have much, much worse. Has anyone noticed that the stock market is back on track & that 401k’s are back to higher than they were when everything went wrong. Has anyone noticed that the GDP is up 3.5%.
I didn’t think so.
The “crash” happened after 8 yrs of GOP. And the GOP cannot take credit for the US having survived something that could have been far, far worse then it turned out. The GOP cannot be thanked because they were too busy saying no & being critical at every turn.
Posted by: Linda | October 30, 2009, 4:39 pm 4:39 pm
The above should be enough to vote for the Democratic candidate ….
Posted by: Linda | October 30, 2009, 4:41 pm 4:41 pm
Friday, October 30, 2009
The Democrat Rackeeteering Fix is in: NJ-GOV: Jon Corzine’s Absentee Ballot Slush Fund
Is there one, (one?!) honest Democrat? C’mon NewJersey!
NJ-GOV: Jon Corzine’s Absentee Ballot Slush Fund NRO via Redstate
National Review’s Jim Geraghty has a tremendously important story. Jon Corzine is trying to build an absentee ballot slush fund to win a recount in the New Jersey Governor’s race. Basically, the Democratic Party has asked the Secretary of State to send provisional absentee ballots out to people whose signatures on their absentee ballot requests don’t match:
In a development that is depressingly predictable, the New Jersey Democratic party is asking the state to provide provisional ballots for all these voters. Those ballots could, presumably, be used to overcome any narrow lead by Republican Chris Christie over Democrat Jon Corzine on Election Day.
Now, let’s be clear how the absentee process works in New Jersey. Third parties can pick up and return absentee ballots. A couple of weeks ago, a Democratic operative in Atlantic City plead guilty to a lesser charge of tampering with ballots. One practice mentioned in the indictment was the person picking up ballots from people and throwing them out if they weren’t for his candidate. Another example was:
They allegedly solicited applications for messenger absentee ballots from individuals not qualified to receive them and had the voters not fill in the name of the messenger, so they could fraudulently designate themselves as the authorized messengers or bearers.
And:
They allegedly obtained messenger ballots from the county clerk and submitted them to the board of elections as vote s on behalf of voters who, in fact, never received or voted the ballots or, in some cases, were given only the security envelope for the ballot and were told to sign it. Those voters were not given the opportunity to vote in most instances.
So when ballots are getting into the hands of people who didn’t even ask fro them, you have to wonder what is going on.
And lest we not forget the dead vote: Thanks to the increasing popularity of absentee voting, a rising number of the recently deceased are casting ballots — legally.
Posted by: pauldia | October 30, 2009, 6:00 pm 6:00 pm
this Hoffman guy is right! Will more taxes help businesses? NO! To think that they would is insanity. And if we keep just handing out welfare checks while people can’t get jobs, we are going to be doing it for a long time.
And Dave, you are totally right, you just need to add on some more recent additions:
Multiple stimulus bills: failed
Cash for Clunkers: off the charts failure
What has the government done right domestically?
Adopt a Highway. And that’s run by volunteers
Posted by: patriot1812 | October 30, 2009, 7:26 pm 7:26 pm
Did anyone notice the stock market plummet on Friday after the FAKE GDP numbers on thursday, The REAL CONSUMER SPENDING data on Friday and the FAKE Jobs ‘created or saved’ number on Friday?
What the children who voted for Obama and never experienced Jimmy Carter have failed to realize is that the policies put forward by Obama combined with the mere presence of a radical socialist in the White House have caused businesses to think twice about hiring new employees or keeping the employees they have.
In the 1980′s, the recession ended with four consecutive quarters of over 8.0% growth. Including a quarter at 9.3% growth. Not a FAKE 3.5%.
Here we have a FAKE 3.5%, which was inflated by 1.6% due to cash for clunkers and 0.25% due the housing credit.
Remove the temporary government handouts and you get a stalled economy of 1.7% GDP.
Furthermore, 800,000 people lost their job in the Third Quarter and another 1,200,000 left the job market all together in the Third Quarter with unemployment U3 and U6 at 9.8 and 17%.
The American People know that 2 MILLION people having their job prospects destroyed over a three month period mean the quarter was a disaster.
The FAKE 650,000 number provided by the White House will finally weed out the biased and intellectually vacant in the economic debate. If you believe that number, you’ll believe anything.
In NY-23, voters get a chance to respond to the insanity.
Posted by: Angelo | October 31, 2009, 8:07 am 8:07 am
Dear George S. – your interview of Valerie Jarrett gives you the opportunity to show America that you are no longer merely a flack for the Democrat Party. Simply do some Journalism 101 and check out the background of Mrs. Jarrett. Play some clips of her speeches where she embraces the self-proclaimed Communist Van Jones. Ask why she recommended he be appointed Green Jobs Csar (imagine, a Communist being responsible for creating jobs)?
Ask her why so many appointments in the Obama Administration are anti-free-market-capitalism. (Play the videos, if you cannot find them, call Glenn Beck.)
George, this is your chance to man-up, and show us that you are worthy of our viewership.
I believe you can do it.
Regards
Posted by: G. Nappe | October 31, 2009, 1:03 pm 1:03 pm
Democrats whining and blaming everone for their problems is nothing new….
Posted by: bailedout | November 1, 2009, 9:55 am 9:55 am
The Far Right shows its true colors: the GOP, FEDERAL, walk in and bump out the people’s – state’s choice.
Posted by: newz4i | November 1, 2009, 10:30 am 10:30 am
Republican platform: State’s Rights.
The GOP “misplace” their platform when they manhandled Mrs. Scozzafava (the local/state choice) off the local ballot.
Posted by: newz4i | November 1, 2009, 11:41 am 11:41 am