Teabaggers claim the scalp of Dede Scozzafava
One of many uncomfortable moments for former Congressional candidate Dede Scozzafava in New York's 23rd District. From Politico.
It’s been a long, ugly campaign for Dede Scozzafava, who had been chosen by the local political leadership in New York’s District 23 to be their candidate. That decision was endorsed by national Republican political leaders, including the NRCC and Michael “The Awesome Hip-Hop Makeover” Steele, as well it should be, since really, national party mucky-mucks have no business, really, telling local pols what to do in their own districts. Well… try telling that to national teabaggers, who have no such respect for local decision-making. They, of the teabag set, led by the online storm troopers like RedState.com, along with their queen, Sarah Palin, decided to stick their noses into the New York 23 race, to prove that a “real conservative” must be chosen in every race, everywhere, or else. Glenn Beck even got into the act, doing his now tired shtick of calling Scozzafava a Marxist. Yes, yes, Glenn, who isn’t?
Well on Saturday, Halloween, ironically, after being verbally abused by the jihadis for weeks, and subjected to the indignity of not being endorsed on Sarah Palin’s Facebook page, not to mention an army of failed Republican politicians, from Fred Thompson to Rick Santorum, who rose up in opposition to her candidacy (well, more like coughed a lot and struggled to their feet in opposition, particularly in the case of Thompson…) Dede Scozzafava had enough. From Bloomberg:
Nov. 1 — The Republican candidate for a vacant New York congressional seat suspended her campaign after her lead in polls evaporated and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin endorsed a rival in the three-way race.
Republican assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava said she was stepping aside after being “outspent on both sides.” Her withdrawal may hand the traditionally Republican seat to a Democrat in the Nov. 3 special election and leave the Republican Party with just two seats in New York’s 29-member House delegation.
Scozzafava is running third in the contest in New York’s 23rd congressional district, with the race between her opponents “too close to call,” according to a Siena College poll published yesterday. The poll of 704 likely voters, taken Oct. 27-29, shows Democrat Bill Owens with 36 percent of the vote and Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman with 35 percent.
At the start of October, the Siena poll showed Scozzafava leading with 35 percent of the vote. Her support dropped to 20 percent in the latest poll.
Conservatives including Palin, the Republican Party’s 2008 vice presidential candidate, have rallied around Hoffman, a Lake Placid businessman, instead of Scozzafava, who supports abortion rights and was endorsed by the state teachers union.
Palin portrayed Hoffman as the contest’s true conservative, along with former House Majority Leader Dick Armey of Texas, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, former Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and former Senator Fred Thompson of Tennessee.
The race pitted Palin and the rest of the winger New World Order against mainstreamers (and I shudder to think that they are now the mainstream version of Republicanism) like Steele and Newt Gingrich, the onetime intellectual titan of the conservative movement, who in this race was reduced to begging fellow right wingers to act like grownups. No can do, Mr. Speaker. RedState’s Erick Von Erickson was posting dramatic calls yesterday to “purge the GOP establishment” and to force Republicans nationwide to “win with conservatives or lose without us!”. Erickson had been demanding Scozzafava withdraw for weeks, and when the news broke that Scozzafava was out, first he cheered, then he quickly moved on to waving his invisible sword over Florida Governor Charlie Crist, the next “not conservative enough” Republican on the list to be “Scozzafavad.” From Von Erickson’s Daily Reich Dispatch at 10:55 yesterday morning:
Relationships between the Republican establishment in Washington and the conservative movement are in rubble. Thanks to Pete Sessions, Chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, NOT Doug Hoffman, there is new inspiration for a third party movement to challenge the GOP – a movement that will only help the Democrats.
Good men in the GOP are now going to be challenged in primaries because of the ill-will the NRCC has generated in New York’s 23rd Congressional District.
Make no mistake about it, the NRCC and the RNC must shoulder the blame for this fiasco. As has now been reported and confirmed, it was the Beltway Elite who pressured the New York GOP to choose Scozzafava.
I have said all along that victory for the GOP base in NY-23 was a Scozzafava defeat. We should, however, rally to Doug Hoffman and help him win. Notwithstanding that, the time is now to be magnanimous in victory, but we must demand accountability.
Someone, more than one person, must be fired for the Republican botching of NY-23. Heads must roll lest this happen again.
And John Cornyn and the National Republican Senatorial Committee better be paying attention, see e.g. Charlie Crist v. Marco Rubio in Florida.
Today, Erick is having his Academy Award moment, doling out credit for the scalping of Scozzafava, including to himself.
While it was flattering to be attacked by the Scozzafava campaign and next to the Newsweek profile of me, this is probably the most flattering article written about me — It declares me the winner in NY-23 — there are really some groups and people who need to be commended for their hard work above me and anyone else outside of Hoffman and his campaign team.
Matt Lewis has a comprehensive list that is worth reading. And thanks Matt for a mention. But there are four who must be remembered. The one caveat is that there are several who, above all else, can declare victory today, but they must, out of necessity and the need to remain effective, stay anonymous. I, however, know who they are.
Please though, remember these four:
1. Fred & Jeri Thompson. They made this race their personal crusade. They have helped bring in talent and endorsements, putting their own reputations on the line.
2. Susan B. Anthony List. First in and last out, they have been under the radar for months. Before the tea party activists. Before the cavalcade of politicians from Palin to Pawlenty to Perry, there was Susan B. Anthony.
3. Club For Growth. A group that many see as a front for the GOP has given the GOP a solid black eye and elevates fiscal conservatism to the forefront of the fight to save America.
4. Jon Henke. Jon came in to little fanfare or notice and helped rally conservative activists online for Hoffman. Many people did not realize until recently that Jon was even helping Hoffman. But he did. He’s done great work. We don’t always see eye to eye on issues, but make no mistake — a lot of people will be quicker to recognize the above three than Jon, but Jon has played a critical and vital role.
One honorable mention: Dave Keene at ACU. Dave raced into this race almost immediately. He organized a blogger call out of the shoot, before Henke was even involved. Make no mistake about it — Dave Keene and the American Conservative Union did a hell of a lot to keep some people out of this race and bring others in. They can hold their head high on this.
UPDATED: Keep getting emails saying I need to go all PBS and say “And readers like you.” Fair point.
So are the teabaggers now firmly in charge of the party? Longtime conservative activist Richard Viguerie says YES, declaring in a press release yesterday that “tea party activists ARE the new GOP:
“In her statement announcing suspension of her campaign in the special election for New York’s 23rd congressional district, Assemblywoman and liberal GOP nominee Dede Scozzafava refused to throw her support behind a fellow Republican, Doug Hoffman, who is running on the Conservative Party ticket in this particular race.
“That was one more example of the ‘closed tent’ mentality of big-government, establishment Republicans who have worked long and hard to keep conservatives out of power at the national, state, and local levels.
“The GOP leadership’s backing of Ms. Scozzafava was a slap in the face to Tea Party activists, town hall protesters, and conservatives across the country. The Washington GOP establishment’s abandonment of fiscal responsibility led directly to the election of Barack Obama as President and Nancy Pelosi as Speaker. The American people see the GOP leadership and establishment every bit as much a part of the problem as the Democrats.
“Doug Hoffman and NY-23 is an earthquake in American politics, and is the first of many challenges to establishment Republicans that we will see for the 2010 elections and beyond. The stupid decision by Republican leaders to pour $900,000 into the NY-23rd race against a conservative has unleashed a fury that will lead to new GOP leadership.
“Conservatives anger at Washington-establishment Republicans will cost the national committees tens of millions of dollars as conservative money will start flowing directly to the Tea Parties and their candidates.”
Meanwhile, nobody has bothered to ask the upstate New Yorkers who actually get to vote in the District, what they think. While Col Von Erickson, Sarah Palin, and even poor Tim Pawlenty spend so much time tinkering with the 23rd District, the local political leadership and local rank and file Republicans, are being, for the most part, ignored. I’m thinking there must have been a reason that local pols chose Scozzafava as their candidate — they live in the neighborhood — they know the voters — and since Scozzafava was already and elected official, while Hoffman is not, there must be something, I don’t know, electable about her. And having a bunch of teabagging bloggers and Dick Armey stick their nose in and demand that a local race be engineered, not locally, but by THEM, has got to smart. So what happens if local folks don’t swallow the medicine Erick Von Erickson is feeding them? Something like this:
A day after Republican Dede Scozzafava dropped out of the NY-23 special election, the Watertown Daily Times — the biggest newspaper in the district — backed Democrat Bill Owens.
It’s a dramatic shift, especially for a newspaper which generally has a (small-c) conservative-leaning editorial page.
The endorsement of Owens went like this:
Of the two, Bill Owens is by far the superior and only choice.
The Democratic candidate has demonstrated a willingness to listen to people about ways in which he could help the district as their representative in Washington. Mr. Owens has remained focused on the economy and job creation throughout his campaign. At the same time, he has shown an understanding of the military, a keen desire to help dairy farmers, an ability to work with labor unions and an eagerness to learn more about the vast, 11-county district that he hopes to represent.
Mr. Owens seems to approach politics and challenges with an open mind, a generous spirit and a can-do attitude. He has conducted a dignified campaign in comparison to Doug Hoffman.
And as for Mr. Hoffman:
If he carries out his pledges on earmarks, taxation, labor law reform and other inflexible positions, Northern New York will suffer.
This rural district depends on the federal government for an investment in Fort Drum and its soldiers, environmental protection of our international waterway and the Adirondack Park, and the livelihood of all our dairy farmers across the district, among other support.
Our representative cannot be locked into rigid promises and policies that would jeopardize these critical sectors of our economy.
For a member of Congress, there may be a time to promote reform in Washington, but there is also a time to work within a system that best serves the people you represent.
It is frightening that Mr. Hoffman is so beholden to right-wing ideologues who dismiss Northern New Yorkers as parochial when people here simply want to know how Mr. Hoffman will protect their interests in Washington.
In other words: all politics is local; a point further emphasized in the paper’s “voter’s guide“, published last Thursday:
During his nine-term tenure as Northern New York’s congressman, Republican John McHugh ably served by focusing on issues critical to the north country and its residents.
Whoever succeeds him will need a similar focus on Northern New York’s bread-and-butter concerns. The special election for Mr. McHugh’s seat is the opportunity to discuss those issues germane to the 23rd Congressional District.
So far, that has not happened. Outside interests have hijacked the three-way race between Republican Dierdre Scozzafava, Democrat Bill Owens and Conservative Douglas Hoffman.
Endorsements come from afar. Fundraisers are held outside the district. National party committees comment daily on the race. National debates on social issues and partisan concerns get rehashed here to the exclusion of questions specific to voters in the 23rd district.
And it pretty much goes downhill from there:
The only candidates’ debate will be held in Syracuse in a television studio with no live audience. Syracuse is outside of the district.
One of the candidates, Mr. Hoffman, does not even live in the district. Mr. Hoffman will not be able to vote for himself and his wife won’t see her husband’s name on the ballot.
The candidates need to describe their positions on north country topics and how they would govern.
Here is a short list of issues which have been consistently important in the north country.
? How do they feel about federal attempts to widen and deepen the St. Lawrence Seaway to accommodate larger oceangoing ships?
? Do they support winter navigation in the Seaway?
? How would they help protect the waterway from encroachment of invasive species?
? Where do they stand on the development of a rooftop highway from Watertown to Plattsburgh?
? Would they approve of plans to transform the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corp. into a federal power-marketing entity, as proposed by Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio?
? What factors should determine the location of power-generating facilities in the rural district? Should any areas be off-limits?
? How should the routing of electrical transmission lines to convey power from rural to urban areas be located and permitted?
? Will the candidates commit to protecting the power generated at the Moses-Saunders Power Dam that makes possible thousands of jobs in Northern New York?
? How do they stand on border issues? Should security override citizens’ desire to travel freely between Northern New York and Canada and the need for smooth commercial travel? Should the federal government interrupt fishing trips, picnics and boating excursions in the name of protecting the border?
? Acid rain. Adirondack issues. Water levels. Dairy issues. Fort Drum. Wind power. In their campaigns so far, the candidates have only touched upon the many areas in which they will be expected to govern if elected.
Voters know where Assemblywoman Scozzafava stands since she has held elective office for 20 years.
However instead of focusing on any of Ms. Scozzafava’s work on all of the above issues, outside interests keep reminding us of what we already know about her positions on abortion and gay marriage.
The scarcity of discussion and debate on the nuts-and-bolts issues of the complex 23rd Congressional District does a disservice to its residents.
No one in Washington votes in this election, but inside the Beltway cadre’s efforts to decide this election is an arrogant abuse of political ambition.
Mr. Hoffman clearly doesn’t get it. He already was on the skilled for knowing nothing about local issues, and here’s his statement on Ms. Scozzafava’s exit Saturday:
“This morning’s events prove what we have said for the last week; this campaign is a horserace between me and Nancy Pelosi’s handpicked candidate, Bill Owens. At this moment, the Democratic Party, the Working Families Party, ACORN, Big Labor and pro-abortion groups are flooding the district with troops and they are flooding the airwaves with a million dollars worth of negative ads. They are throwing mud; they are trying to stop me.
“It’s time for us to send a message to Washington—we’re sick and tired of big spending, high taxing, career politicians and by voting for me on Tuesday you will send that message loud and clear.”
So will the race come down to local concerns, or will the Republican voters, who form a majority in the district, go all Glenn Beck and elect a man who is promising to gut the local economy on behalf of a far right agenda that has nothing to do with local concerns? If Hoffman is elected, I can’t wait to see him try and cut that federal funding.
As a Democrat, I’m thoroughly enjoying the New York 23 blow-up, and I hope it’s a taste of things to come, because in most of the country, with the exception of extremely conservative districts already controlled by Republicans, teabagger candidates can’t win, and where they do win, they’ll have to essentially wreck their districts by denuding the local economy of federal money, in order to keep the national base happy, which will destroy them with the local base, or they’ll have to become actual Republicans, piss off the teabaggers, and bring the money home if they want to stay in their seats. The bloodletting of Republican candidates makes absolutely no difference to us Democrats, since all the teabaggers can do is replace one Republican with another, if more right wing one. What effect will that have on the balance of power in Congress? None. Let’s say Hoffman wins on Tuesday. What will have been accomplished? The net gain in seats for the GOP will be zero, but the party will have further delegitimized its own national leadership, and isolated itself in a blue state, with a far right wing candidate who can’t possibly go any further — not to the Senate, not to the governor’s mansion, not anywhere, because most people, even most Republicans, are turned off by the screaming, ALL CAPS, fire breathing right. Only they don’t know it. Like Glenn Beck’s 3 million viewers, they think there are more of them than there really are.
So go on and crow, Col. Von Erickson, and take down every moderate Republican in Congress. As for me, I’m watching this one with popcorn. As Frank Rich puts it in his column this weekend:
The battle for upstate New York confirms just how swiftly the right has devolved into a wacky, paranoid cult that is as eager to eat its own as it is to destroy Obama. The movement’s undisputed leaders, Palin and Beck, neither of whom has what Palin once called the “actual responsibilities” of public office, would gladly see the Republican Party die on the cross of right-wing ideological purity. Over the short term, at least, their wish could come true.
The right’s embrace of Hoffman is a double-barreled suicide for the G.O.P. On Saturday, the battered Scozzafava suspended her campaign, further scrambling the race. It’s still conceivable that the Democratic candidate could capture a seat the Republicans should own. But it’s even better for Democrats if Hoffman wins. Punch-drunk with this triumph, the right will redouble its support of primary challengers to 2010 G.O.P. candidates they regard as impure. That’s bad news for even a Republican as conservative as Kay Bailey Hutchison, whose primary opponent in the Texas governor’s race, the incumbent Rick Perry, floated the possibility of secession at a teabagger rally in April and hastily endorsed Hoffman on Thursday.
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