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For PJ: Conservative Loses Upstate House Race in Blow to Right

Having killfiled  you PJ, I don't see your postings unless
somebody comments on them. But I am sure you read
this kind of thing.  The NY election was a blow to
the blow-hard Rush Limbaugh-Susan Palin right,
the birthers, baggers and your ilk.

Have a good day.

****


November 4, 2009

Conservative Loses Upstate House Race in Blow to Right
By JEREMY W. PETERS


SARANAC LAKE, N.Y. ‹ Democrats won a special election in New York State¹s
northernmost Congressional district Tuesday, a setback for national
conservatives who heavily promoted a third candidate in what became an
intense debate over the direction of the Republican Party.

The Democratic candidate, Bill Owens, led with 49 percent of the vote, while
the Conservative Party candidate, Douglas L. Hoffman, had 46 percent.

Just before 12:30 a.m. Mr. Owens stepped up to a lectern at an American
Legion Hall in Plattsburgh, his hometown, and urged residents of the
district to put aside the partisan fighting that characterized the race.

"The challenges that we face are not Democratic or Republican," he said.
"They are not liberal or conservative. They're challenges that Americans
face and that we will overcome with American resolve."

Mr. Hoffman spoke to a deflated crowd of about 50 in a hotel ballroom here
soon after midnight on Wednesday and said he had called Mr. Owens to
concede.

³Thank you to every single person out there that joined my team and fought
back for America,² Mr. Hoffman said. ³This one was worth the fight. And
it¹s
only one fight in the battle, and we have to keep fighting.²

The district has been a Republican stronghold for generations, and the party
has represented parts of it since the 19th century.

The battle became one of the most closely followed races in the nation,
drawing in some of the biggest forces in politics in both parties.
Republicans who viewed the race as a test of the party¹s most deeply held
conservative principles ‹ including Sarah Palin, the former governor of
Alaska; Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, a presidential hopeful; and
grass-roots groups that have forcefully opposed Democratic economic and
health care policies ‹ rallied behind Mr. Hoffman.

Democrats threw muscle behind the race as well, eager to avoid a potentially
embarrassing defeat as President Obama¹s approval ratings have softened and
efforts to portray them as the party of big government and deficit spending
appear to be sticking. A win in the Republican-leaning 23rd Congressional
District would provide Democrats with a welcome boost, while a loss would
reinforce the notion that the party is struggling.

The seat became vacant after President Obama appointed its long-serving
Republican congressman, John M. McHugh, as secretary of the Army.

Leading conservative voices ‹ including The Wall Street Journal¹s editorial
page and The Weekly Standard and the talk show personalities Rush Limbaugh
and Glenn Beck ‹ took on the Republican nominee, Assemblywoman Dede
Scozzafava, who supports gay rights and abortion rights and had embraced
some Democratic economic policies like the federal stimulus package. They
labeled her as too liberal.

The attacks on Ms. Scozzafava eventually took their toll, and she stunned
her party over the weekend first by withdrawing from the race and then by
urging her supporters to vote for Mr. Owens, a 60-year-old lawyer from
Plattsburgh.

But the ballots had already been printed, and early results showed her
picking up 6 percent of the vote. It was unclear how many of those were
protest votes, and how many simply did not know she had left the race.

The White House became closely involved in the efforts to boost Mr. Owens¹s
candidacy in the final days of the campaign. They orchestrated an effort
that persuaded Ms. Scozzafava to endorse Mr. Owens. Vice President Joseph R.
Biden rolled through the district on Monday to support Mr. Owens.

But the race was perhaps most notable for the fissures it opened in the
Republican Party. Ms. Scozzafava, who was selected as the Republican nominee
by the 11 leaders of the county committees that comprise this vast district
along the Canadian border, was excoriated by Washington¹s conservative
establishment almost as soon as she was nominated.

Ms. Scozzafava united social and fiscal conservatives from across the
country firmly behind Mr. Hoffman, a previously unknown 59-year-old
accountant from Lake Placid ‹ which is not in the district.

The Club for Growth, a group that promotes limited government and lower
taxes, spent about $1 million promoting Mr. Hoffman. Social conservative
organizations like the Susan B. Anthony List, which opposes abortion, and
the National Organization for Marriage, which fights same-sex marriage laws,
joined forces in support of Mr. Hoffman. They printed literature, made phone
calls and flooded the district with volunteers from across the country.

³This is probably the most amazing coalition-building I¹ve seen in a long
time ‹ probably decades,² said Marilyn Musgrave, a former Republican
congresswoman from Colorado who now works with the Susan B. Anthony List and
came to New York to campaign for Mr. Hoffman.

On Tuesday morning, Ms. Musgrave stood in frigid weather for several hours
outside a state office building in downtown Watertown with a group of
home-schooled students passing out blue fliers that read, ³Doug Hoffman
shares our values!²

Ms. Musgrave said the overwhelming conservative embrace of Mr. Hoffman would
show leaders in Washington that political bases should not be taken for
granted. ³Don¹t just assume we¹re yours.²

Joe Lo Templio reported from Plattsburgh.

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