'Principled' GOP candidate would have won (OneNewsNow.com)

'Principled' GOP candidate would have won

Jim Brown - OneNewsNow - 11/4/2009 1:15:00 PM

A pro-life group that backed Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman says the Democratic special election victory in New York's 23rd Congressional District is actually a win for motivated conservative activists.

Bill Owens (NY) Democrat and retired Air Force Captain Bill Owens, running in a historically Republican stronghold, capitalized on a split that emerged between Republican liberals and conservatives. Owens defeated Hoffman (49 percent to 45 percent) after the withdrawal of liberal Republican candidate DeDe Scozzafava over the weekend, whose name remained on the ballot, drawing 6 percent of the vote.

The race grabbed national attention when a rift developed among Republican Party leaders. Scozzafava was initially supported by the likes of House Minority Leader John Boehner and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, while potential GOP presidential candidates Sarah Palin and Tim Pawlenty backed Hoffman, and declared that an endorsement of Scozzafava constituted a betrayal of the party's core conservative values.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the socially conservative Susan B. Anthony List, says the Republican Party "apparatus" needs to learn a strong lesson from the New York contest.

"Being principled is the best strategy for long-term success," she states. "In New York [District] 23, if we had had a candidate who was principled in terms of accepting and embracing the principles of the Republican Party platform, we would be seeing a Republican sworn in from [that] district right now. As it turns out, Doug Hoffman ended up having to run against two parties for a very long period of time."

Dannenfelser says the well-funded fiscal and social conservative coalition that united behind Hoffman needs to be replicated by the Republican Party in 2010 if it hopes to elect conservative leaders across the nation.

The Susan B. Anthony List spent $142,000 in the New York race, including $62,000 on the ground operation, $50,000 on radio ads, $14,000 in GOTV phone calls, and $11,000 in bundled contributions from organization members.