There’s quite a line up of prominent Republicans lining-up against Dede Scozzafava, the Republican candidate and instead endorsing Doug Hoffman, the Conservative candidate. Andy Barr at Politico reports:
Some of the most prominent names in national Republican Party politics are lining up against the GOP nominee in a key upstate New York House special election, the latest being former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, who weighed in Friday.
In endorsing Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman in the Nov. 3 contest, Santorum joined former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, Minnesota Rep. Michelle Bachmann, former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson, and former presidential candidate Steve Forbes, all of whom announced their backing for the conservative third-party candidate this week.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty suggested Friday that he might be the next well-known Republican to break with the party establishment and support Hoffman. When asked about the race Friday during an interview with ABC, he expressed frustration with GOP nominee Dede Scozzafava and said he will “probably” endorse in the race.
Duane Lester at All American Blogger gives a great timeline on this heated Congressional race… good stuff if you haven’t been following the NY 23 race that long.
Daily Kos just released a poll they commissioned which shows the Democratic candidate, Bill Owens, gaining with 35%, Scozzafava has 30%, and Hoffman with 23%. R.S. McCain points out that this poll was done prior to many of the endorsements and before his interview with Glenn Beck and other interviews. He also notes some other factors that need to be considered in this race:
This will be a difficult race to poll. It’s a stand-alone special election in an off-off-year, and very low turnout is to be expected. So it’s a get-out-the-vote battle and the campaign with the most energy and enthusiasm has a built-in advantage.
Remember that this district has routinely gone 65% or more Republican even in bad GOP years like 2006 and 2008. If Owens is at 35%, that’s merely the standard Democratic vote in NY23. The big question is whether undecided Republicans break toward Scozzafava or Hoffman.
Scozzafava has the highest negative ratings (35%) of any of the three candidates — Owens negatives are 24% and Hoffman’s are 19%. Which is to say, Scozzafava has nowhere to go but down.
Mike Huckabee on Cavuto yesterday, mostly agrees with him on everything, but no endorsement… 🙁 His reasoning still doesn’t make sense to me.
At least he’s not endorsing Scozzafava. Mitt Romney? Still nothing… but as I mentioned before, I’m not surprised. Melissa Clouthier over at Pajamas Media said with Palin’s endorsement of Hoffman, she’s sending the GOP establishment a clear message, and they should take note.
We need to speak out, as Erick Erickson at RedState wrote last night:
We will no longer stay silent. NY-23 makes very clear that the GOP needs the conservative base more than the conservative base needs the GOP.
So please support Doug Hoffman if you have the means to do so. Just a few days left, and he can pull this off.
Update: Erick Erickson at RedState says he knows why Mike Huckabee won’t endorse Hoffman, even though he mainly agrees with him.
I’ve known this for a couple of weeks and hoped it wasn’t true. But based on more conversations over the last few days and today, I have to report that denials to the contrary I know why Mike Huckabee will not endorse Doug Hoffman despite agreeing with pretty much everything Doug Hoffman says.
The Club for Growth and Fred Thompson endorsed Doug Hoffman.
Huckabee and the Club do not get along and Huckabee is still bitter about Thompson hanging on after Iowa in 2008.
I asked him if this was speculation or if he was hearing this from people close to Huckabee. Erick said that it wasn’t speculation:
Heard it from multiple sources connected to various parties involved, including him.
Very disappointing.
2nd Update: I’m retracting the above update – see details here.
