New York 23 Update - Scozzafava endorses Dem

In what amounts to an I told you so moment, Dede Scozzafava, after dropping out of the race has endorsed her Democrat opponent rather than the Conservative who forced her out of the race.

Wall Street Journal commentary on the events hits the mark:

GOP state chairman Joe Mondello, now thankfully retired, and Beltway bigs misjudged public dismay against the Democratic agenda in Washington. Nominating a candidate who "can win" in the Northeast does not have to mean someone whose voting record is more liberal on taxes and unions than that of most Blue Dog Democrats.

Update on New York 23 - Scozzafava Quits

H/T Hotair. The liberal Republican nominee in the New York 23rd congressional district has quit the race after sinking to a distant third in the polls. This is good news, because it makes it easier for the Conservative Party nominee, Doug Hoffman, to capture the seat. However, Hotair reports that Hoffman has high negatives among Scozzafava supporters, so it is not obvious that he will win. Regardless, this is a clear warning that Republican nominees need to be supporters of small government and can't be radically leftist on abortion.

Siena College poll here.

New York - 23 Update

DailyKos polling shows the 23rd Congressional district race to be a statistical dead heat, with Democrat Bill Owens clinging to a one point lead over Conservative Party insurgent Doug Hoffman. The Republican nominee, Dede Scozzafava, is fading fast, down to 23% and falling.

Recent results from Research 2000 for Kos:

Scozzafava (R) 21 (30)
Owens (D) 33 (35)
Hoffman (C) 32 (23)

I find this polling to be credible, and it confirms recent trends. As I opined earlier, this is a great opportunity to let the Republican leadership know they need to listen to the Tea Party calls for smaller government and less debt and I have donated to the Hoffman campaign. As Kos points out, if Republicans keep breaking for Hoffman, no way does Owens win this race.

Doug Hoffman, not much to look at, but better than the alternative.

Tea Partying the Republican Party

As many of you may know, I am not a big fan of the Republican Party, I just loathe the Democrat party with much greater intensity. In fact until 2008, I was a registered Libertarian. So it gives me great pleasure to stick it in the eye of the GOP when they abandon any pretense of being the party of small government, even though that platform brought them huge victories in 1994. Such an opportunity exists in New York's 23rd Congressional District special election.

The Republicans have nominated Dede Scozzafava, a recipient of the Margaret Sanger award from Planned Parenthood for her work supporting abortion rights. HotAir has been all over this. Fortunately for Conservatives, New York has a strong third party movement. In this case, the Conservative Party of New York (of James Bucklry fame) is running a far superior candidate. First a little more on Scozzafava from Michelle Malkin as re-posted in Hot Air.

Scozzafava is an abortion rights advocate who favors gay marriage.
It would be one thing if Scozzafava balanced that social liberalism with fiscal conservatism. But as a state assemblywoman, she voted for massive tax increases, Democratic budgets and a $180 million state bank bailout. She also supported the trillion-dollar federal stimulus package — which every House Republican voted against.

More troubling, Scozzafava in past elections has embraced the ballot line of the Working Families Party — a socialist outfit whose political DNA is intertwined with scandal-ridden ACORN. ACORN and the WFP have shared office space in New York City, Arkansas and Illinois. ACORN head Bertha Lewis, a close Scozzafava friend and political supporter, wears a second hat as vice chairman of the WFP. The WFP has been listed in ACORN documents dating back to 2000 as an “affiliate.”…

This is a chance for those of us in the Tea Party movement to show the Republicans not to pull this kind of crap. Scozzafava was nominated by party officials, so they can't claim any voter mandate for her.

Here is a little of what Hoffman says in a NY Post Op-Ed piece:

It’s just as bad in Washington. The Obama administration suffers from the illusion that the way you solve problems, both social and economic, is to throw money at them.In the meantime, Congress fiddles while our economy burns. They lack common sense.

They don’t seem to get it that increased spending leads to higher taxes and fuels a projected $9 trillion deficit. That earmarks and pork-barrel spending might be beneficial to their political careers, but are devastating to the taxpayers who foot the bill. They are oblivious to the fact that tort reform, cutting of waste, and the introduction of free-market solutions are the ways to lower the cost of health care. That Obama-care will only lead us down the slippery slope to socialized medicine.

I have visited Hoffman's web site and donated to his cause, because it's time this country had at least one party that supports the concept of limited government. I encourage you to do the same.