Posted by
Crescen7(Regis Matejcik) on Wednesday, November 04, 2009 8:55:19 AM
Here's what we learned:
The New York GOP is dominated by left leaning moderates and is terribly weak.
NY 23 isn't that conservative.
Conservatism is most successful in elections when it works through the GOP.
It is difficult to win Congressional races relying on primarily "air strikes"
`That is, high profile endorsements, radio, web, and TV support don't easily translate to "votes on the ground."
That being said, the final outcome in NY 23 isn't the "worst case scenario." The worst would be a Sczzfzz victory which would have strengthened left-wing supporters in the GOP. However, it's foolish to pretend that the Hoffman results are encouraging for those who wish to destroy the GOP in favor of some third party alternative. Hoffman was the beneficiary of more national support from conservative forces than any Congressional candidate in memory - he still lost.
NY 23 will be contested again next year, it will certainly not get as much attention when it's one of hundreds of elections. There will be a GOP primary, and hopefully a strong conservative Republican candidate. Hopefully Hoffman will compete in the GOP primary, and either win - or support the winner, and help build a "ground attack" in New York to put this seat back into conservative control.