"Remember Doug Hoffman? You might say he was the original Christine O'Donnell - and now he's back for a victory lap."
Conservative Party congressional candidate in New York's 23rd district Doug Hoffman, 11/03/09. (photo: Wenig/AP)
Republicans Eating Their Own
25 September 10
Doug Hoffman and other vanity candidates could undermine GOP pickups.
Remember Doug Hoffman? You might say he was the original Christine O'Donnell - and now he's back for a victory lap.
He's the very conservative candidate who cost Republicans New York's 23rd Congressional District in 2009, handing it to Democrat Bill Owens in a special election to replace John McHugh, a Republican who resigned to become secretary of the Army. In that race, he ran as a Conservative Party candidate facing moderate Republican Dede Scozzafava. It should have been easy for Republicans to hold, given that McHugh was a Republican and the district has historicall voted for Republicans for president, including in 2000 and 2004 (CORRECTION: This post originally stated that the 23rd district voted for McCain). But even after Scozzafava bowed to intense pressure and left the race, she drew 6 percent of the vote, enough to split conservatives and hand the election to Owens. (Hoffman had a hard time letting go, trying to "un-concede," then asserting that ACORN had stolen the election from him, despite having no evidence.)
At the time, he promised to run again the following year - since it was a special election, a regular race had to be held to fill the seat on a regular basis in November 2010. And Hoffman's a man of his word: he did run for the Republican nomination, and he didn't get it, losing a primary to Republican Matt Doheny. It took Hoffman 10 days, but he's now conceded - and promised to stay in the race as a Conservative Party candidate. That should set him up well to potentially sabotage Doheny's chance to reclaim the seat.
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