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NY 23, 2010…what’s up with that?

By: SteveLA (Diary)  |  May 16th, 2010 at 10:07 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

Flashing back to 2009 we had the infamous NY 23 race, and the whole selected not elected Greek tragedy of Dede Scozzafava, who couldn’t even pass as a RINO, running against Doug Hoffman as the Conservative party candidate. The race and the circumstances that led up to this race were fairly well documented and commented on affair here on RS, with a pretty universal agreement that a primary is where the Republican party should select it’s standard bearer.

I’ve sort of been keeping an eye on this race as it was an interesting political story.  Right now it looks like at least in NY 23, there is another storm brewing and Doug Hoffman again is part of that storm.

Syracuse.com has an article up on the race that is rather interesting.

“Washington, DC — Five months after Doug Hoffman exposed a deep divide in the Republican Party by launching a third-party bid for Congress, the odds are suddenly improving for a repeat three-way race in the 23rd Congressional District this fall.

The scenario began to play out last week as the early momentum shifted to Republican investment banker Matt Doheny, of Watertown, as he battles Hoffman for the GOP nomination.”

I know nothing about ether Republican candidate, but the fact that the voters of NY 23 are going to be heard and not the back room overlords of the NY Republican party is a good thing.

Here’s where things go a bit off the rails, at least as far as Doug Hoffman is concerned.

Doheny, emphasizing that he expects to win the Republican endorsement, has pledged to support Hoffman if he should pick up the GOP nomination. But Hoffman has so far declined to make a similar pledge, a move that has privately angered some of the county chairs.

I don’t have any conclusions to this story, or for that matter know who is going to end up facing the Donk who won the seat after NY Republican party fumbled so badly. From an observer of the political process standpoint, this is a fascinating second round for the Republican party in NY 23, and hopefully whoever is nominated will reclaim the seat for the Republican side.

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  • NeoKong

    Check him out.

    He has a lot of support.
    He could win.

    • SteveLA

      NeoKong

      I figured Doheny was a pretty decent guy, and I’m also sensing that Hoffman has a few flaws despite being the uber conservative Anti-RINO hero here on RS.

      End of the day though, the people of NY 23 who are Republican are going to select someone to run in the general, the looser is just that the looser and needs to listen to the voice of the people. A run by Hoffman under the conservative party banner again would be less than impressive to me.

  • IJB
    • SteveLA

      There is an element of primary posturing going on, so don’t be too hard on Hoffman. If he wins, this is all moot, if not, well all depends on what Hoffman does next.

      I’m more curious about what sort of R the ordinary folks in NY 23 want to represent them. Hoffman is clearly one sort of conservative, his opponent looks to be more of the moderate type. But then again, Dede was well to the Left of just about anything I recognize as a Republican, but according to some here on RS she epitomized the RINO wing of the party. So what would a rejection of uber conservative Hoffman mean, besides all politics is local and local voters can figure out who they want to be represented by? Who knows.

      Interesting race to watch.

      • IJB

        …It’s that he’s a *bad* candidate. Frankly, I think a better candidate would have pulled out NY-23 in 2009, even with all the extenuating circumstances there.

        I honestly don’t think people going to Doheny has anything to do with “moderate-vs-conservative”, and has much more to do with NeoKong’s point that Hoffman just isn’t a great candidate…

        • SteveLA

          There is that point too, what sort of candidate is Hoffman, and it looks like maybe not all that great.

  • http://slcliberty.blogivists.com randy streu

    the backroom dealing on the part of the local party bosses IS going to hurt him.

    Basically it smacks of childish revenge politics on the part of the county chairs because Hoffman hurt THEIR pick last time. He didn’t have a CHANCE with them this time around, and there are even allegations that he was NOT EVEN INVITED to speak with them or attempt to win the endorsement of at least one county.

    This is where it’s going to get difficult. Folks up here don’t like some random party *hole who thinks he’s hot stuff telling the rest of us who we should vote for.

    Should Hoffman run third party, it’s going to hand the win to Owens. There’s no question at all about that. BUT, this time around, though he has the support in the PRIMARIES of the NY Conservative Party, it is doubtful they would shoot themselves in the foot by running a candidate in the general against a GOOD, CONSERVATIVE Republican candidate.

    That said, my guess is, if Hoffman wants to run third-party, it will NOT be the Conservative Party line. Without that support, hopefully (and probably), should he lose the primary, he will, ultimately, choose to support Doheny as the solid, Conservative candidate he is.