Ladies and gentlemen, the cat is officially in the dryer:
“Over the past few days I have thought long and hard about the next six weeks,” Hoffman said in a statement released by his campaign.
“I have spoken with family, friends, supporters and staff as I have weighed my next step. So today, with new resolve and a strong commitment to conservative principles, I rededicate myself to this race and announce that I will actively campaign for Congress as the nominee of the Conservative Party.”
“Understand, I do not continue this race out of spite or because of self conceived virtues. I continue in this race because of the failings of my opponents to be truthful with the voters.
“Whether we look a Mr. Owens’ support of Obama-care or Mr. Doheny claim to be pro-life when in fact he supports abortion through the first trimester, we see two candidates who will do or say anything to get a vote elected.”
Of course, Hoffman was going to stay on the ballot regardless (unless, somehow, someone nominated this wild-eyed accountant for a judgeship), but it’s nice to see that he’ll be actively holding Republican Matt Doheny accountable from the right – and helping Democrat Bill Owens tremendously.
Do come back in 2012.
Have fun in Congress, Mr. Owens.
Doug Hoffman, Christine Odonnell, Tom Tancredo, Sharron Angle, Mike Sodrel, who else am I missing here? These guys (and ladies) are keeping seats blue.
Likely D this one goes to next update methinks.
but I don’t think Owens will need to win with a plurality, I really don’t, not in an ordinary election with general election turnout.
The reason I say this is because I think the special election was a turning point and a realignment. St. Lawrence, Franklin and Clinton counties were already reliably Democratic on a Presidential level and continually getting more so, but now I feel they are reliably Democratic on a local level as well, which will definitely help Daniel Aubertine get reelected this year. My sense was that following the undercutting of Scozzafava’s campaign, a large number of moderate to liberal Republicans just said fuck this and realigned with the Democrats, which if my view is right, means that Jefferson county effectively switched from Republican leaning to Democratic leaning. Combined with Lawrence, Franklin, and Clinton, which are on their way to Vermont territory, it creates a reliable base for any Democrat running for congress there, and hopefully turns a formerly Republican area reliably Democratic in statewide races.
Regardless of what Ryan says, NY DOES not want to vote Republican. The state is more liberal than its ever been, and this is true even in an election with low turnout among minorities and young voters. Upstate areas that used to be reliably gettable for Republicans in tough elections aren’t anymore; Monroe, Onondaga, Orange, Dutchess, these are all increasingly hard for Republicans to win, and Westchest and Nassau are more difficult as well, beyond what happened in recent local elections where extremely low turnout among Democrats killed a variety of prominent Dems, including, thankfully, Tom Suozzi, (what he gets for not running against Peter King in 2008).
My friend is from the Dallas area and I met him at college in North Texas. Somehow, he got picked up by Hoffman and went to NY-23.
Two weeks before the election I asked him how things were going, he kept telling me they were in the driver’s seat and were going to blow it out. I told him I didn’t think so, Doheny looked like the favorite to win. He told me I was wrong and they had the grass roots support, and no one liked Owens so the general was locked.
Two days before I checked in again, he projected they were going to win all but maybe one county based on the numbers he had seen.
Then the primary hit, I sent him a message telling him I was sorry he lost (bout midnight their time). His response was it wasn’t over, still more votes to count, despite me telling him the AP had called it. Few days later I spoke on Hoffman continuing as the conservative party nom, to which he flat out said how Hoffman was not so selfish and egotistical to do that, he was a much more low profile kind person. He was just not conceding until all the absentees were counted.
My friend, it seems, does not know what kind of campaign he got sucked into.
‘If Paladino’s momentum continues at current rates he will have a 117 point lead on election day’.