The “political analysts” of the “talking head” and blogger classes have already laid blame for Republican Jane Corwin’s loss to Democrat Kathy Hochul in the special election last week for the New York 26th Congressional District U.S. House seat. “Golly gee whiz, that darn ‘fake tea partier’ Jack Davis fooled all them dang, dense tea partiers into voting for him. If only he hadn’t been so devious and dastardly!”

Wrong. The NY CD-26 conservatives in the Republican and Conservative Parties have only themselves to blame. While Corwin lost by 5,388 votes, 125,500 Republican and Conservative Party registered voters were out to lunch.

Republican Get Out The Vote (“GOTV”) was pathetic, as usual. That, alone, lost the election. But nobody will say it.

Hochul got 50,888 votes, Corwin got 45,500 and the fake tea party candidate, Jack Davis, for the $3 M of his own money he spent, apparently tricked 9,948 dense tea partiers to vote for him.

(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York%27s_26th_congressional_district_special_election,_2011 (scroll down for the later, updated vote totals).)

Guess what? The April voter registration figures reveal that this was truly the Republican and Conservative Parties’ race to lose, and they managed to do it all by themselves by not getting out the vote. They had a huge registration advantage:

CD-26 Voter Registration Totals by Party

Democrat: 133,193

Working Families: 1,895

Republican: 161,366

Conservative: 9,028

Independent: 18,988

(Source: http://www.elections.state.ny.us/NYSBOE/enrollment/congress/congress_apr11.pdf.)

Corwin’s vote total of 45,500 divided by the approximately 170,000 Republican and Conservative registered voters times 100 equals a pathetic less than 27 per cent vote turnout. In other words, over 73 per cent of the registered Republicans and Conservatives were just too dang busy to vote.

By contrast, Hochul’s 50,888 vote total divided by the 135,088 Democrat and Working Families registered voters times 100 equals a 37.6 per cent vote turnout.

Not Enough Conservatives “IN” The Party

And odds are that the average percentage of precinct committeeman slots in each of the counties in NY CD-26 is under 50 per cent. That’s why a more conservative Republican didn’t get the nod to run – because, simply, there were not enough conservatives in precinct committeeman ranks to make that happen. The New York Election Code says that in the case of special elections for the U.S. House, the rules of the respective political parties shall determine who the nominee will be for that party. The rules of the New York Republican Party basically say that the county committee chairmen select the nominee with advice from the precinct committeemen. I seem to recall there was a better, “more conservative” Republican than Corwin who was seeking the nod, but there probably were not enough conservative precinct committeemen in each county to make an impact on the county chairmen. That’s essentially why Dede Scozzafava got the nod in NY’s CD-23 special election back in 2009. And I know that first-hand because I spoke with several of the Republican county chairmen in that district during that fiasco and they told me less than 50 per cent of the precinct committeemen slots in their counties were filled. Plenty of conservative Republicans there — just not plenty of politically active conservatives.

Corwin had 5,388 fewer votes than the winner, Hochul. And ignoring the Independents, and assuming Corwin got all of her 45,500 votes from registered Republicans and Conservatives, 125,500 Republican and Conservative too-damn-lazy-to-vote-in-a-special-election voters, who could have easily given her the 5,389 she needed to beat Hochul, lost the election for Corwin. Maybe those 5,389 needed to win would have voted if the Republican Party had done a better job at GOTV.

So, we can’t blame Davis. Blame the lazy Republicans and Conservative Party registered voters. They lost it all by themselves.

The Dems Have VoteBuilder

No doubt the Democrats and Working Families Parties were using the Democrats’ VoteBuilder software to get out the vote. And no doubt the Republican and Conservative Parties were not using anything at all like VoteBuilder.

We Could Have rVotes

But they could have been using rVotes.

Please go read LadyImpactOhio’s article over at Unified Patriots for more information about rVotes. Please follow the links. I have seen a live demo of rVotes and talked at length with the developer, Steve Adler. LIO deserves kudos for helping to spread the word about rVotes. As far as I know, she beat everybody to the punch.

We conservatives get the elected public servants our inaction deserves. The NY CD-26 special election results proved that once again.

Do you think you could help get rVotes purchased for use in your state? Will you become a precinct committeeman? Will you help get out the vote in 2012?

Thank you.

For Liberty,

ColdWarrior
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Will YOU help make 2011 “The Year of the Precinct Committeeman?”

Where it all started.

Taking back our party. Information, GOTV, Precinct committeeman strategy.

Learn how to GOTV at The Concord Project and at Procinct and Unified Patriots.