Thread: New survey has Hoffman leading in NY-23

New survey has Hoffman leading in NY-23
By: Mark Tapscott
Editorial Page Editor
10/26/09 11:45 AM EDT

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opini ... 88142.html

It has a small sample of only 300 likely voters, but a new survey finds Conservative Party of New York congressional candidate Doug Hoffman leading for the first time over his Democrat and Republican rivals in the special election to fill the 23rd district congressional seat vacated by Rep. John McHugh, R-NY.

The survey was conducted by Basswood Research pollster Jon Lerner and has a margin of error of 5.66 percent, which is rather wide. Even so, the results are consistent in terms of overall trend with recent surveys by other pollsters that showed Hoffman's support heading upwards.

Basswood's results show Hoffman leading with 31.3 percent, while Democrat Bill Owens is second at 27 percent and Republican Dede Scozzafava third at 19.7 percent. A little more than one in five voters remain undecided, according to the survey, at 22 percent. Basswood conducted the survey for Club for Growth, a conservative activist group that is spending several hunded thousand dollars on advertising for Hoffman.

Scozzafava, a liberal New York Assemblywoman who has run in prior elections with the endorsement of ACORN's Working Families Party, was annointed by local Republican leaders as the GOP candidate after McHugh announced his acceptance of President Obama's appointment as Secretary of the Army. Hoffman had sought the GOP nomination but opted to run as the Conservative Party candidate after Scozzafava was named.

Scozzafava made national headlines last week by calling the cops on The Weekly Standard's John McCormack after he asked her about her support of Card Check, abortion and gay rights. After first claiming that McCormack was screaming his questions at Scozzafava, her media spokesman conceded that was not true when The Weekly Standard writer produced a tape recording of the encounter.

Following the McCormack flap, a number of conservative bloggers and publications, including this newspaper, called on Scozzafava to withdraw from the race.

Appeared on Glenn Beck today. I hope that will give him a boost.

Where does he stand on the issue of Amnesty? I was not able to see Beck today.

I'm not sure of his stance on Illegal Immigration, but what is interesting is that this may be Political Barometer for the 2010 Elections. Rest assured that washington is watching this very closely.

I don't like at all what Hoffman said regarding illegal immigration.


He was ask: Where do you stand on illegal immigration?

He states: "There is no question that our immigration policies are flawed. The answer, though, is not to put up a wall and stop all immigration. The answer is to create an easier path for immigrants to enter the United States – and to work here – while at the same time getting tough on illegal immigrants who commit crimes. "

He essentially stated it is ok to break the law coming here illegally as long as you don't commit a crime. Too many politicians are allowed to say this without being challenged about the "rule of law" that they continue to ignore.

The Democrat and Republican running against him are worse if possible.

I am hoping this sets the mode toward voting against the two party system.

This is a segment of a Glenn Beck interview with Hoffman. Draw your own conclusion. Sending mixed messages?


http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articl ... 196/32205/




PAT: Comprehensive immigration reform. How do you feel about comprehensive immigration reform? Because family values don't stop at the Rio Grande.

HOFFMAN: Exactly, exactly.

PAT: Where do you stand on amnesty?

HOFFMAN: I do not believe on giving amnesty. I do believe, again, in giving better easier regulations and red tape to make workers that want to come into this country, giving them green cards easier so that we know they're in here legally and we know that they go out when they're

PAT: You know what? That's the discussion we should be having.

GLENN: Okay. Now hang on just a second. So you want to make it easier for immigrants to come here through the front door, which I'm totally behind.

PAT: Yep.

GLENN: Well, Doug, how are you ever going to get everybody who's already here out?

HOFFMAN: Well, that, I don't have an instant solution for but we certainly have to find a way that we don't have people sneaking across our borders.

GLENN: Okay, I got one for you.

HOFFMAN: Coming in.

GLENN: Got one for you. Doug, let me help you out. I'm going to give you a drink. I'm buying a cocktail for you.

HOFFMAN: There it is.

GLENN: Well, they seem to find their way here. I'm guessing they will be able to find themselves going the other direction. It's just reverse the map. However, we need an incentive for doing that and that is why we're going after all of the companies that are hiring these people. They came here for jobs. If the jobs dry up, they will go home. And those jobs are currently being needed by Americans who are here and we know that pay taxes. So let's go after the giant corporations who are living on the 21st century version of the slave trade, huh? Huh?

HOFFMAN: Okay.

GLENN: Now how much do you want to

HOFFMAN: That's a good drink.

PAT: How about these three words: Enforce the law.

HOFFMAN: Absolutely. That will work.

GLENN: That's good. That's good. There you go.

PAT: They self support. And it's worked in every, virtually every city that's tried that.

HOFFMAN: Right. But one thing I was trying to get across, Glenn, is that we need to make it easy for skilled professionals and doctors and scientists and engineers that can come in here and help us out and then go home after they've done the job, we need to make it easier for them to come in.

GLENN: Absolutely. Look, before all of this was in the news, what's his name, gates, Bill Gates was saying Microsoft is going to fall behind because we can't get the green cards, we can't get the Visas for it to come in and work. We're losing all of these big brains that have always gone to colleges here and then wanted to stay here because of the opportunity. And we can't keep them here anymore and our government has been saying, well, we need to send them home, we need 0 send. What? Let's keep the best and the brightest here.

HOFFMAN: That's what I'm saying, that's absolutely what I'm saying is America's the melting pot and we need to get highly skilled people that can help us out to stay here.

STU: Isn't the biggest thing you have to cross here, the biggest line, though, is to convince people in your district that it's not a wasted vote to vote for you?

I picked up the comment I posted from his website.

Everything other than illegal immigration sounds "conservative".


http://www.doughoffmanforcongress.com/issues.html

He never states that he wants to Enforce our Immigration Laws and Secure our National Borders. It seems he wants to do "something" about only ILLEGALS who commit crimes while in the United States not because they are ILLEGALS; sounds more like a watered down version of a Sanctuary City Policy or a "lite" Chamber of Commerce stance. But this link states thet Rohrabacher endorses him. I still do not have a clear understanding that he is AGAINST ILLEGALS. Can someone help me out?

http://www.rohrabacher.com/drnews.html

HOFFMAN: Right. But one thing I was trying to get across, Glenn, is that we need to make it easy for skilled professionals and doctors and scientists and engineers that can come in here and help us out and then go home after they've done the job, we need to make it easier for them to come in.

Why do we need to make it easier for even more to come in? It's already easy for these people to come in! We have no less than a half dozen different visas for these people to enter this country on! It's far more difficult to get them to leave once their visa expires. They never want to talk about that component of the equation I notice. They never explain how we are going to get these people to leave once here! That's what I want to know!

How many times do we hear of those who entered on tourist, student, or work visas simply staying after that visa has expired! It's likely an epidemic, but of course, our government will never reveal. Probaby, because they have no idea how many people have overstayed their visas.

IMHO, Hoffman is at the wrong end of the horse! Can we just get one politician who is running to say he simply believes that current laws regarding immigration be enforced, with no amnesty provisions attached. That perhaps less immigration might actually be good for this country, considering we have some 20 million currently that have entered in violation of Federal law?

Is it too much to ask in this uber- politically correct country we now live in to just ask that our laws on immigration be followed and enforced.