- Simple: If you advocate cap and trade, you should be in jail or a mental hospital.
- waging war on some candidates hand-picked by GOP leaders as the most likely to win.
In upstate New York, Dede Scozzafava, 49 years old, is the choice of local party leaders to defend a Republican seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, an abortion-rights candidate who could appeal to independents.
- Doug Hoffman, 59, is a local accountant backed by tea-party activists who has jumped into the race declaring himself the real conservative.
Mr. Hoffman has siphoned so much support from Ms. Scozzafava that their Democratic rival has vaulted into the lead, according to a poll released Thursday. The election is Nov. 3.
"I am not your run-of-the-mill politician, and maybe that's
- why the Republican bosses didn't like me," Mr. Hoffman told a recent health-care forum
sponsored by the Upstate New York Tea Party. In an interview, Ms. Scozzafava acknowledged her discomfort at the event. "I knew it wasn't going to be an easy audience for me," she said.
- Republicans are poised to pick up a number of seats in next year's congressional elections, pollsters estimate, on the back of a deep recession, public unease about the growth of government and the size of the nation's deficit. Anti-Obama activism manifested in rallies and town-hall meetings has galvanized conservatives, injecting enthusiasm into the Republican base.
But these newly energized conservatives present GOP leaders with a potential problem: The party's strategy for attracting moderate voters risks alienating activists who are demanding ideological purity,"....
- ***This is an understandable mistake. The GOP and people like Gingrich want to label these people as 'ideological purists' which is false. It is first and foremost, stop cap and trade. Gingrich ignores this reality as he and others have jumped on the global warming gravy train. This is about facts, not ideology.
(Wall St. Journal continuing): "who may then gravitate to other candidates or stay at home. It's a classic dilemma faced by parties in the minority -- tension between those who want a return to the party's ideological roots and those who want candidates most likely to win in their districts.
- "The potential that the Republican Party puts up candidates that fail to excite the support of this movement is very real," says Lawrence Jacobs, director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance, University of Minnesota.
The race in upstate New York is a somewhat extreme example of this phenomenon. No one is suggesting the tea-party movement will cause the GOP to lose seats overall next year. As the only congressional election this fall, the race stands an early test of the party's ability to navigate these conflicting impulses.
- When Democrats were in the minority, they turned more pragmatic in their choice of candidates starting in 2006, and were rewarded with two election victories. In preparation for 2010, many of the picks of Republican leaders in key races have records designed to appeal to middle-of-the-road voters, which also make the party faithful cringe.
In Florida, Republican leaders were elated when popular Florida Gov. Charlie Crist agreed to run for the Senate. He has adopted policies such as an aggressive approach to global warming that appeal even to Democrats.
- Those very policies infuriated conservatives, as did Mr. Crist's decision to campaign with President Barack Obama on behalf of the president's $787 billion stimulus package.
"He was Judas to the Republican Party in the state of Florida and across the country," says Robin Stublen, 53, of Punta Gorda, co-state coordinator for the Tea Party Patriots, a loose national coalition. "He sold us out for 13 pieces of gold."
A spokesman for Mr. Crist said the governor made sure stimulus dollars went to items important to Florida voters.
- Mr. Crist has drawn a primary challenge from Marco Rubio, a former Florida House speaker, who is aggressively seeking tea-party members' support.
The GOP scored another potential coup when Republican Illinois Rep. Mark Kirk decided to seek Mr. Obama's former Senate seat, now held by Democratic Sen. Roland Burris. Mr. Kirk, however, voted for a Democratic climate-change bill in the House, prompting about 30 people to hold a tea-party protest at his office. Many activists vow never to support him." (McCain supports him).
- Wall St. Journal, continuing: "In New Hampshire, Republican leaders praise Senate candidate Kelly Ayotte as a new breed of telegenic Republican, even while some conservatives attack her record as state attorney general. Former Rep. Rob Simmons, who is seeking a Senate seat in Connecticut, and Rep. Mike Castle, who just announced his Senate candidacy in Delaware, face similar scorn.
"Personally, I'm just as fed up with the Republican Party as the Democratic Party," says Catherina Wojtowicz, coordinator of the Chicago tea-party group. "The Republican Party looks great on paper.
- But the people who call themselves Republicans, with a few exceptions, have no idea what the party stand for,
- or don't care."...
Republican leaders in Washington, such as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio, are trying to align the GOP with the protesters' frustrations, praising their actions and echoing their arguments.
But the tea-party movement appears aggressively nonpartisan, much like Ross Perot's supporters in 1992. "The tea-party movement, in my judgment, has proven to be very real, but it's precisely the fact that it's real that makes it difficult to take advantage of," says Vin Weber, a former Minnesota congressman and now a top Republican strategist.
- "They don't want to be co-opted by the Republican Party."
New York's 23rd Congressional District, which borders Canada, comprises roughly one-quarter of New York State. Sparsely populated, it is dotted by small towns and dairy farms and stretches across much of the Adirondack Mountains. The district leans conservative, with some 46,000 more registered Republicans than Democrats. Mr. Obama, however, captured it with 52% of the vote.
The special election was prompted by the president's June appointment of the district's Republican Rep. John McHugh as Army secretary.
- The next month, the district's 11 Republican county chairmen gathered at a pizzeria in Potsdam to pick a nominee. They were looking for someone with name recognition who could prevail in a shortened campaign when the economy was voters' top concern. Ms. Scozzafava, a former small-town mayor who has served for a decade in the state legislature, seemed the right choice.
Ms. Scozzafava spent 20 years as a stockbroker. Her family has owned the same auto-parts store in Gouverneur, N.Y., for decades. In March 2008, upset at the sex scandals surrounding former Gov. Eliot Spitzer and his successor, David Paterson, Ms. Scozzafava sent a letter to her colleagues blasting an Albany social life "that is somewhere between 'Girls & Boys Gone Wild' and a sorority-fraternity style mixer."
- She appealed to the Republican chairmen. "We asked, is it possible to put in place a Republican candidate that uniformly stands for all the conservative values of the far right, but is unelectable?" says William Farber, the Hamilton County chairman. "I would much rather have a candidate like Dede Scozzafava that I don't agree with 100% of the time, but always has been honest and forthright."
Mr. Hoffman, who'd been passed over, was rankled by his rival's ascent. He teamed up with the Conservative Party, which has a long history in New York. After growing up in Plattsburgh, he had parlayed an accountant's degree into a flourishing financial firm and branched out into other businesses. He opened a campaign headquarters on the site of a former gas station where he'd pumped gas as a 14-year-old.
- Ms. Scozzafava, he noted, was pro-choice, backed gay marriage, supported Mr. Obama's stimulus plan and favored making it easier for unions to organize. The New York Conservative Party gave her a rating of 15 out of a possible 100, based on her votes in the state assembly.
"I really felt that the Republican bosses who selected her were misrepresenting her as a Republican," said Mr. Hoffman in an interview.
- "I felt the voters in this district, number one, deserve to know what her real record is, and number two, deserve a choice besides a liberal Republican and a liberal Democrat that's going to support Nancy Pelosi," the Democratic House Speaker.
GOP leaders were outraged, especially since Mr. Hoffman, like other congressional hopefuls, had pledged to support the nominee. "He did say it repeatedly," said Sandra Corey, the former GOP chairwoman of Jefferson County. "And then all of a sudden, it's a no-go, like he hadn't understood her background, which is a falsehood. I would never, ever trust him."
- Mr. Hoffman says that during the selection process, he didn't realize that Ms. Scozzafava was as liberal as she is.
The contest, the only congressional race to be held this Election Day, is attracting attention from the national parties. Democrats have spent $130,200 to run ads blasting Ms. Scozzafava for voting for "more taxes" 190 times. The Scozzafava campaign dismisses that claim, saying it includes routine sales-tax rate extensions requested by counties.
- Mr. Obama is scheduled to hold a fund-raiser for lawyer Bill Owens, the Democrat in the race, in New York on Oct. 20. The Republicans have shelled out $247,332 for ads painting Mr. Owens as Ms. Pelosi's "gift" to upstate New York.
The Club for Growth, a fiscally conservative group, has announced it's spending $250,000 -- and may spend more -- in support of Mr. Hoffman, depicting Mr. Owens and Ms. Scozzafava as equally contemptible liberals. Mr. Hoffman has attracted the endorsements of several conservative and antiabortion groups.
- "The fact that [the tea-party groups are] out there is going to help my candidacy, because there are people just like me that are feeling the same frustrations and the same disappointment with our leadership and doing something about it," says Mr. Hoffman.
A poll released Thursday by the Siena Research Institute showed Mr. Owens leading Ms. Scozzafava 33% to 29%, with Mr. Hoffman at 23%. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.9 percentage points. In a poll released by the same organization on Oct. 1, Ms. Scozzafava had led her Democratic opponent 35% to 28%, with Mr. Hoffman garnering 16%.
- Republicans, worried a winnable seat is slipping away, are scrambling.
- Mr. Boehner, the House Minority leader, promised to support Ms. Scozzafava for a seat on the House Armed Services Committee -- important in a district that's home to Fort Drum, an army base.
The Scozzafava campaign issued a flier headlined: "What conservatives need to know about Dede," including such points as "Dede believes government spending is out of control." She's touted her conservative credentials, including an endorsement by the National Rifle Association.
- Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is endorsing her, according to a letter provided by her campaign.
Mr. Owens, the Democrat who would benefit if his rivals split the Republican vote, has largely stayed out of the fray. He didn't appear at the candidates' forum sponsored by the Upstate New York Tea Party.
- Throughout that event, Mr. Hoffman sought to make a virtue of his awkwardness, saying that unlike Ms. Scozzafava, he wasn't a professional politician. "If you want polish and pizazz, I'm not your guy," he said. Ms. Scozzafava assured the audience she was just as fed up with government spending as they were.
Even before the forum began, it was clear which candidate had the audience's heart. "I've never met the man, and he's got my vote," Gary Barber, 69, a retired schoolteacher from nearby Au Sable Forks, said of Mr. Hoffman. "He's conservative and he's not a lawyer.""
- "Tea-Party Activists Complicate Republican Comeback Strategy," by Naftali Bendavid, via Free Republic
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