WWNY-TV is reporting that Dede Scozzafava is about to announce that she will release her supporters to Doug Hoffman.
The anticipated announcement is apparently as a result of this poll just released by Siena University. The latest poll shows Hoffman and Owens in a statistical tie and shows Scozzafava supported by just 20%, a drop of 1/3 in just a couple of weeks.
The Party people in DC and at state level Republican politics, have been telling themselves that the teapartiers, and those who sympathize with them, are all emotion and no substance. They tell each other that they don’t have to pay attention to the teapartiers, that they will fall back into the cattle line if ignored long enough.
The Party people in DC and at the state level had better be paying attention. Even if Hoffman loses, it’s clear that the folks sympathetic to the teaparty perspective can muster political muscle. If Hoffman wins, it will reinforce the teaparty movement and bring people who have been so far, watching from the outside, into the movement.
If Steele, Newt, Graham and others continue to have their heads in the sand, it will be a long year for them; Halloween 2009 will be just the beginning of a very scary year. If they recognize the value, principle and passion of the teaparty folks it will be the Democrats who will fear 2010!
Update 12:10 PM – She’s out! Interesting that she didn’t endorse Hoffman. You’d think that if she really was all that the NRCC said she was, she’d heartily endorse the only remaining candidate that wants to shrink government and lower taxes.
It will be interesting to watch the spin of the RNC, NRCC and other national Republican leadership as they now attempt to hop on the Hoffman bandwagon. I’m sure they’ll all try to hang their hat on some variation of “supporting the endorsement.” From their standpoint, I’m not sure if it matters whether Hoffman wins or loses. If he wins, the Teaparty movement gets a big feather to stick in their cap. If he loses, all the fingers will point to the national leadership for having screwed this race up.
If Steele, Newt, Graham and others continue to have their heads in the sand, it will be a long year for them; Halloween 2009 will be just the beginning of a very scary year
It will be a lot worse for (D)s who vote for ObamaCare.
The focus was not on the very-liberal half of the bipartisan Party-In-Government.
A couple points of order:
– The RNC and NRCC were prepared to finish spending their $900,000 on Scozzafava even in the face of the Siena College poll that finally pushed her out.
– They, as well as Newt Gingrich, didn’t move off of Scozzafava until she pulled the rug out from under them.
The question is whether the GOP will finally complete its turn to the right, or whether they’ll stab conservatives in the back like they did in 2005, 2002, 1996, 1988,….
[…] she didn’t immediately endorse Hoffman. In fact, you can see my comment about that in my Saturday post. I guess this was just another of those “call me Carnac” […]