In case you haven’t been following the NY-23 special election here is a very quick recap.
Obama appointed John McHugh as the 21st Secretary of the Army. This left a vacancy and created a special election to fill his seat. Democrats picked Bill Owens and the Republican committee picked Dede Scozzafava.
Since Scozzafava was the most liberal pick the GOP could make more than a few people were upset with their choice. One man, Doug Hoffman, got fed up and ran as the Conservative party candidate. The conservative blogosphere pretty much erupted in support of Hoffman along with high profile endorsements from Sarah Palin, Fred Thompson etc. as well as support from the Club for Growth, Tax Day Tea Party and many more.
Gingrich came out in support of Scozzafava saying basically that the local committee picked her and while he doesn’t agree with her she is a vote against Pelosi, which IMHO is a very accurate statement.
After much polling, posturing and donating Scozzafava dropped out and her supporters will have to choose between Hoffman and Owens.
Since Scozzafava has dropped out Gingrich has now endorsed Hoffman and made this pithy statement on his blog, “The age of party leaders picking people is over”.
With Hoffman I have yet to see a great interview, speech or debate. He just doesn’t impress or seem knowledgeable about local issues and if he wins it will be because of the peoples dissatisfaction with both parties.
Here in PA I am running into this sentiment more and more. My conservative friends are switching to the independent, libertarian or constitutional party and the GOP seems to be doing absolutely nothing. Recent polling has 56% of Pennsylvanians saying that no incumbent should be re-elected. We need new faces in politics, especially locally and if they don’t appear in the GOP lineup then people will go elsewhere.
More great reads on this subject.
Ruffini at The Next Right has a great post talking about the possibility of NY-23′s across the country.
The TCOT report, reports on how Scozzafava got the Republican endorsement.
Also read Cillizza’s “The Fix” at the Washington Post about what NY-23 means.
Matt Lewis at Townhall has a roundup of the winners and losers of this election.
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