Thread: The Fat Lady's Not Singing in New York... Yet

The Fat Lady's Not Singing in New York... Yet


Posted by Bobby Eberle
November 17, 2009 at 8:56 am

Two weeks ago marked a turn in the Republican comeback. Running on conservative issues and against the anti-American socialist policies of Barack Obama, Republicans picked up the governorships in New Jersey and Virginia. Try as they might to dismiss the events, the Obama team was clearly sent a message: America is a conservative country, and it rejects your left-wing takeover.

New Jersey and Virginia were not the only focal points on Election Day. The special election in New York's 23rd congressional district pitted an unknown candidate representing the Conservative Party against his Democrat opponent. The so-called "Republican" candidate dropped out. Despite the fiasco brought about by the Republican Party establishment backing a candidate more liberal than the Democrat, Doug Hoffman (the conservative candidate) nearly won. But wait... perhaps Election Day really was a clean sweep for the conservative cause. It turns out that the NY-23 race is getting closer by the day, and Hoffman has unconceded his concession. Here are the details...

First some background: In this special election, a small group of Republican Party chairman, with the support of the National Republican Congressional Committee, rallied around Dede Scozzafava as the Republican nominee. She is more liberal than about half of the Democrats in the NY State Assembly. There was a huge backlash, and Republicans in the district turned away from her and put their support behind the Conservative Party's Doug Hoffman.

When Scozzafava plummeted in the polls, not only did she suspend her campaign, but she then threw her support behind the Democrat! Does that sound like a "real" Republican to you? On election night, Scozzafava still drew about 5 percent of the vote, enough to tilt the race to Democrat Bill Owens.

Despite the closeness of the race -- only a few thousand votes difference -- Hoffman conceded to Owens on election night. However, that has all changed. As reported by The Hill, "Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman has "unconceded" in New York's special House election after reports that the vote margin narrowed between him and Rep. Bill Owens (D)."

The Syracuse Post-Standard reports that Hoffman "was down 5,335 votes with 93 percent of the vote counted on election night."

Now a recanvassing in the 11-county district shows that Owens' lead has narrowed to 3,026 votes over Hoffman, 66,698 to 63,672, according to the latest unofficial results from the state Board of Elections.

In Oswego County, where Hoffman was reported to lead by only 500 votes with 93 percent of the vote counted election night, inspectors found Hoffman actually won by 1,748 votes -- 12,748 to 11,000.

The new vote totals mean the race will be decided by absentee ballots, of which about 10,200 were distributed, said John Conklin, communications director for the state Board of Elections.

Rather than wait for the recanvassing and the counting of absentee ballots, Hoffman conceded on election night. Owens was immediately sworn in and cast a vote to help pass the Democrats' health care bill in the House.

Hoffman is certainly ready to keep fighting. In an e-mail to supporters on Friday, Hoffman wrote, "Our Campaign Is Not Over Yet!"

You have stood by us through this challenging campaign, one that took many unexpected twists and turns. First two liberals were running against one conservative. Then the liberal Republican dropped out of the race and, showing her true colors, endorsed the real Pelosi Democrat. On Election Day the votes were close, and we thought we had lost.

Yet now, a little more than a week after Election Day, our fight takes another turn as reports surface that the election was far closer than we had originally thought. There is only a 3,000-vote difference and final tally will be decided by a count of 10,000 absentee ballots.

Hoffman would need over 65% of those absentee ballots to win, so he is certainly a long shot. But the point is that an unknown conservative battling against an established Democrat, a Republican who is a Democrat, and the confusion over Scozzafava's withdrawal and endorsement has come very close to winning. And the margin keeps getting closer. Imagine what would have happened if the Republican establishment had just picked a real Republican!

http://www.gopusa.com/theloft/?p=147

Interesting.

If a majority of those go the the military well then Hoffman might pull it off, that makes Owens vote for health care no good.