17 responses so far ↓

• 1 Ross Levin // Oct 29, 2009 at 7:03 pm

  That’s second place.

• 2 Ross Levin // Oct 29, 2009 at 7:03 pm

  Damnit. Read the headline wrong.

• 3 Third Party Revolution // Oct 29, 2009 at 7:08 pm

  A couple of other recent polls showed Hoffman in the lead.

• 4 NewFederalist // Oct 29, 2009 at 7:08 pm

  Since Hoffman is a Republican as well you are somewhat correct.

• 5 Solomon Drek // Oct 29, 2009 at 7:51 pm

  There’s ample precedent for a conservative victory. James Buckley, brother of Bill Buckley, was the Conservative Party candidate for US Senate from New York in 1970. He defeated the incumbent, a liberal Republican, and the Democrat. He only served one term in the Senate and retired.

  The Conservative Party in New York has been around a long time and has been a major player in New York politics. It’s not unusual for the well-funded Conservative candidate to win when they run against a liberal Republican and a Democrat.

• 6 Richard Winger // Oct 29, 2009 at 9:38 pm

  There are a lot of parallels between this special election and the 1970 US Senate race in New York. James Buckley was a registered Republican while he ran as the Conservative Party nominee, just like Doug Hoffman.

  Buckley didn’t retire after one term. He was defeated in 1976 by Patrick Moynihan. It is ironic that Buckley won in 1970 when he was the nominee of only the Conservative Party, yet he lost in 1976 when he was the nominee of both the Republican and Conservative Parties.

• 7 NewFederalist // Oct 30, 2009 at 7:22 am

  Not so ironic, Richard, if one believes the voters in New York are roughly 60% liberal and 40% conservative. Just split the liberal vote roughly in half and (which is what Ottinger and Goodell basically did) and Buckley wins. Six years later it was two way and he went down to defeat rather badly.

• 8 Vaughn // Oct 30, 2009 at 8:24 am

  As of April 1st 2009, active registration by party in the 23rd district is:
  115,117 Democrat (31%)
  160,138 Republican (43%)
  18,290 Independence (5%)
  5,305 Conservative (1.4%)
  1,344 Working Families (0.3%)
  796 Green (0.2%)
  69 Libertarian (>0.2%)
  3 Socialist Workers (pretty much 0%)
  70,266 No Party (19%)

• 9 Trent Hill // Oct 30, 2009 at 12:45 pm

  “He only served one term in the Senate and retired.”

  False. He ran for re-election under the Conservative and Republican lines–and lost.

• 10 Trent Hill // Oct 30, 2009 at 12:47 pm

  Has the Independence Party endorsed someone in this race?

• 11 Vaughn // Oct 30, 2009 at 1:16 pm

  (From wikipedia)

  The chairman of the Independence Party of New York announced that the party would have cross-endorsed Aubertine had he run, but with his decision not to run, the party has instead backed Scozzafava.

• 12 Third Party Revolution // Oct 30, 2009 at 1:33 pm

  What’s with the high percentage of IP in the district?

• 13 Nicholas Hensley // Oct 30, 2009 at 2:29 pm

  There was a press release that said the MWP endorsed the Republican. That press release was wrong. We did no such thing.

• 14 Gene Berkman // Oct 30, 2009 at 5:44 pm

  Nicholas @ #13 – what is MWP?

• 15 Michael Seebeck // Oct 30, 2009 at 6:27 pm

  Gene, I think he means the Modern Whig Party.

• 16 Green Party Fan // Oct 30, 2009 at 6:38 pm

  This is good for The three major third parties in the U.S.

  More important it’s good for the country.

  As the comedian Ron White says, Hoffman is looooaaaded…

• 17 Richard Cooper // Oct 30, 2009 at 11:23 pm

  I was Columbia Youth For Jim Buckley chair then. He did not spend six years campaigning as Senator like Schumer. When the Daily News ran the headline “Ford To City: Drop Dead” that undermined Buckley too.

  Until the 90’s it was by no means unusual here on Long Island to have Democrats running with Conservative nominations against Republicans.

  Also, Conservatives have won elections on Long Island and also obtained Republican endorsements.

  Hoffman seems to have raised more funds than the average Conservative Party candidate.

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