Dede’s revenge: Hoffman concedes in New York 23
What an ending. Doug Hoffman, the Glenn Beck devotee and favorite of Erick Erickson and the RedState jihadis, has conceded the race in New York’s 23rd District, making Bill Owens the first Democrat since the Civil War to represent the district in which he — and not Mr. Hoffman — lives. Is it just me, or is the Watertown Daily Times, which has been pounding away at Hoffman’s lack of knowledge about local issues on its editorial page, waxing a little snarky in its headline:
So what have we learned, RedStaters?
Republican candidates won tonight who:
- Ran positive campaigns that emphasized moderation, not fire breathing conservatism. Neither McDonnell in Virginia nor Christie in New Jersey attacked the president during their campaigns, whereas both of their opponents stayed on the attack;
- Actively discouraged Sarah Palin from coming to campaign on their behalf;
- Downplayed their fire breathing conservative credentials, including any lingering retrograde views of women;
- Were supposed to win based on decades of historical precedent anyway. And
- Faced an opponent directly associated with Wall Street. Of course the exception here is Mike Bloomberg, who barely squeaked out a win for a third term — but there, too, Bloomberg has governed as a “kinder, gentler conservative,” not a RedState fire breather.
Meanwhile, the one candidate up for election tonight who did exactly what the wingers want:
- Running as an unabashed conservative, even to the point of pledging eternal fealty to Glenn Beck and the 9/12 movement;
- Bringing in not just Sarah Palin, but also a literal army of right wing stallwarts, from teabagger king Dick Armey to Fred Thompson, and even Rick Santorum, to show just how authentically right wing he is;
- Pledging to do what the Club for Growthers want — drown government in a bathtub by slashing spending and refusing to take earmarks, despite the fact that the district he wanted to represent (but which he doesn’t live in) depends on federal money for its very survival;
- Engaging the right wing blogosphere. Hoffman had RedState, Michelle Malkin and all the rest working hard for him, not to mention the full weight of Fox News;
- .., and most importantly, handing the teabaggers the ultimate victory by knocking off a supposed RINO
That candidate, Doug Hoffman — LOST.
So while exit polls show that neither Virginia nor New Jersey voters saw those races as a referendum on Barack Obama; Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, Fox News, RedState, Glenn Beck and all the rest made New York 23 a referendum on THEM. So can we now conclude that none of these people has any real ability to build a political movement that can actually win elections?
Other winners tonight: Those 11 local pols who picked Dede Scozzafava as the kind of candidate they knew could win New York 23 sure look pretty smart. After all, they actually live in upstate New York. Newt Gingrich, and even Michael Steele, had it right, too. Republican moderates are big winners tonight, since the only GOP winners tonight either emulated them, or ARE them. And once again, it’s been proven that outside of the deep south, Republican moderates can win; conservative extremists lose. And let’s not leave out Florida’s very own governor. If I’m Miss Charlie, I’m popping pink champagne tonight, and maybe even giving the missus a cuddle (okay, maybe not the cuddle.)
Oh, there will be excuses. I expect Erick Erickson will fire off a post chalking up Hoffman’s loss to ACORN, or voter fraud, or he’ll blame Dede Scozzafava for “stabbing Republicans in the back” – forgetting of course that she IS the Republican, and her fellow GOPers stabbed HER in the back by endorsing someone from a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT PARTY… And they’ll begrudge her the 6,500 or so votes that she got tonight, which exceeds the 4,337 margin of victory for Owens. But … and there’s always a but … the problem is that the only reason Dede’s name lingered on the ballot is that their side shoved her out of the race in the eleventh hour, and by law, her name had to remain. Also, it’s not at all clear that the people who voted for Dede wouldn’t have simply voted for Owens anyway, since they were clearly loyal to her, and can be presumed to have been open to fulfilling her wishes (she endorsed Owens.) Erickson will try to muster the troops to believe, vainly, that if they just try it one more time, and knock off Charlie Crist in Florida, this time it really, really is gonna work. Of course, he’ll be wrong.
UPDATE: Col. Von Erickson begins spinning early, claiming that by getting a Democrat elected after more than 100 years in upstate New York, conservatives WIN!
I have said all along that the goal of activists must be to defeat Scozzafava. Doug Hoffman winning would just be gravy. A Hoffman win is not in the cards, but we did exactly what we set out to do — crush the establishment backed GOP candidate.
And make no mistake, despite the Beltway spin, we know for certain based on statements from the local Republican parties, that they chose Scozzafava based on advice from the Washington crowd.
Well if that’s true, then the Washington crowd was right! Dede would have WON, and retained the seat for the GOP. Do go on, however…
Were we to combine Scozzafava and Hoffman’s votes, Hoffman would have won.
Now, see, here’s what you call a logical fallacy. You can’t combine those votes, because you have no idea what the intent of the Dede voters was. They might have stayed home, or they might have voted for Owens. If they had wanted to vote for Hoffman, they would have done so. Not to mention the fact that had you people stayed out of it, polls show Owens would have won anyway. The only way to have assured a Republican victory in New York 23 was to have HOFFMAN drop out. Anything else?
Secondly, and just as importantly, there has all of a sudden been a huge movement among some activists to go the third party route. We see in NY-23 that this is not possible as third parties are not viable.
Oh, NOW you tell us…
For all intents and purposes, NY-23 is a trial run for Florida. And in Florida, the conservative candidate is operating inside the GOP. If John Cornyn and the NRSC do not want to see Florida go the way of NY-23, they better stand down.
Yeah. I’m sure Cornyn is shaking in his boots, Erick. Although if you can get him to buy that line again? Democrats in Florida sure would thank you. 
Comments
2 Responses to “Dede’s revenge: Hoffman concedes in New York 23”
Leave a Reply
Connect
Book deals
Links
Finalist: Best Liberal Blog
Poll
Loading ...
[...] Reid Report notes, the conservatives who ran on the issues and not just on ideological opposition to Obama won. [...]
The last thing the GOP’ers who stabbed Dede Scozzafava in the back expected was that she would willingly return the favor. What they did was ugly and vicious, and it backfired in the worst way by their losing the seat to Owens–a seat that the GOP