Despite the competitive gubernatorial races in the Presidential battleground states of VA and now-bankrupt NJ; one needs to look no further than the upstate New York special election in the 23rd Congressional district to see the true future of the GOP playing out – particularly at the presidential level. The race stands to highlight the kind of mistakes that will not lead Republicans out of the wilderness anytime soon.
The NY-23 race has become a litmus test for the intra-party struggle between the conservative credentials of lower taxes, less spending, limited government, and job creation, and the go along to get along big-government RINOs (Republicans in Name Only), who have strayed so far from the conservative platform, that they go on to discredit the party’s brand nationally. And it appears conservative credentials are winning the battle.
In a recent poll conducted by Club for Growth, Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman now leads with 31%, with Democrat Bill Owens at 27% and Republican Dede Scozzafava trailing at 20%. Armed with high profile endorsements from the likes of Sarah Palin, Steve Forbes, Dick Armey, Michelle Malkin, Fred Thompson, and the latest (and, dare I say, most telling) Tim Pawlenty, Hoffman has lured significant financial support from deep-pocketed outside groups like Club for Growth whose PACs have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of ad buys in the district.
The investment is not only paying off for Hoffman, but also will hopefully teach the national Republican Party leaders an important lesson: the campaign principles that elected the class of ’94 were broken over time, and it is the responsibility of the future GOP to rebuild on a platform that is accountable to a time-tested vision of conservatism. And, across the country, from Florida to Pennsylvania, Nevada to Wisconsin, Ohio to California, candidates are emerging with a message offering higher taxes and big government; the GOP must support candidates who provide an alternative vision that promotes personal freedom, individual liberty, and a path to economic prosperity based on job creation in lieu of promising everyone benefits out of the public treasury.
It is an embarrassment that the rushed selection of Scozzafava by the 23rd Congressional District Republican County Chairs overseen by the New York State GOP quickly and rashly selected a candidate who supports card check, has been previously endorsed by ACORN’s ‘Working Families Party,’ and is a tax-and-spender straight out of Albany. The greater travesty is that the NRCC, with its hands tied to the Republican Party line, continues to spend money to elect a Republican that lacks any conservative credentials, while simultaneously the national party encourages donations to fight ACORN, and stop the endless spending in Washington.
Furthermore, the race highlights the GOP’s inability of adopting lessons learned – even if they’re from a recent election in the district next door! The special election in NY-20 this past March demonstrated an important lesson for the GOP; after much waffling, it was only after the Republican candidate Assemblyman Tedisco came out against the stimulus that he began to gain significant traction. Alas, his slow-off-the-start pro-growth economic stance was too little, too late – and the election was handed to the Democrats, stripping New York of yet another Republican seat. Lesson learned: promote candidates who support party principles. The New York GOP instead turned a blind eye and continued more of the same by selecting Scozzafava for the Republican ticket.
While American Maggie recognizes the importance of generally expanding the Republican Party tent and seeks to promote and support outstanding female candidates, it is critically important that candidates are both substantive and principled. Scozzafava lacks both substance and principles as she continuously struggles to define her views to her constituents. And in Scozzafava’s case, it is not a question of her disagreeing with Republicans on a handful of issues, she breaks party line on nearly every policy issue in today’s headlines.
While Dede Scozzafava’s career as a female politician in Albany should inspire young women to engage in the political process and enter public service, this path should not be at the cost of principles. The path out of the wilderness for the GOP will not come by electing Republicans who support the tax-and-spend, big government policies of Obama, Pelosi and Reid.
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Elise M. Stefanik is President and Founder of American Maggie. She previously served in the Bush Administration’s Office of the Chief of Staff. She worked on the NY-20 special election in 2009, and grew up spending her summers in Congressional District NY-23.
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