Moderate Republican Dierdre Scozzafava has dropped out of the NY House Race. Three people were running in this special election: Scozzafava, the moderate Republican, Hoffman, the conservative Republican, and Democrat Bill Owens. Enter Sarah Palin and Fred Thompson who threw endorsements to Hoffman. The money poured in from all over.
The Huffington Post notes:
“In today’s political arena, you must be able to back up your message with money – and as I’ve been outspent on both sides, I’ve been unable to effectively address many of the charges that have been made about my record,” Scozzafava said.
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said Scozzafava’s decision is a “selfless act” and that the committee is immediately endorsing Hoffman. That support will include financial backing and efforts to get voters to the polls.
Scozzafava also got a gentle nudge to step aside last week from congressional Republicans who had supported her candidacy. Texas Rep. Pete Sessions, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, tacitly acknowledged Thursday that Hoffman might be the stronger candidate for the party, saying the Conservative Party candidate would be “welcome in our conference.”
The NRCC and RNC moved quickly Saturday to endorse Hoffman, but strategists said television ads run by NRCC in the district will continue criticizing Owens, not backing Hoffman.
Some have called the race a test of the GOP’s future: whether traditional conservative ideology would lead the way forward or if a more inclusive approach would draw more people back to the party.
Once again outsiders have tilted a race. The people of NY have really been disenfranchised because of Palin and Thompson. Tennessee and Alaska are a long way from NY.
Earlier in the evening I chided Slowpoke over caring what happened in NY. I shouldn’t have. This NY race is an election microcosm of what’s really going on in this country. If moderates are being pushed back further and further to the right, what is to become of the country? Will the left move more towards the center, or will both sides square off at their respective poles, like 2 old grizzly bears?
The flaw is, there are many of us in the middle, we prefer to call ourselves moderates, who just don’t like being forced into the left or right. A third party might just have to emerge that represents Americans rather than the fringes.
Is this the new Tea Party Rebellion? It looks to me like the big dogs got sent in to disturb a semi local election. It defintely doesn’t seem like what a true conservative would want, much less a tea-partier.
