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NY-23
Deidre Scozzafazza can’t even be called a RINO anymore after pulling a fast one and dropping out of the New York-23 Congressional race just four days before the election was to take place. It appeared that she had conceded her votes to Conservative Party candate Doug Hoffman, who had been polling double-digits ahead of her after widespread criticism that Scozzy was more of a Democrat than a Republican. Turns out, critics couldn’t have been more right, as she quickly turned her coat and endorsed the Democrat, Bill Owens.
The endorsement represented a massive embarrassment to institutional Republicanism and national party politics; NRCC and DNC had lent Scozzy hundreds of thousands of dollars and countless man-hours in support right up until she stabbed them in the back. That makes the RNC and DNCC the clear losers in the debacle, along with Newt Gingrich, chief apologist for Scozzy’s lack of principles and cheap political maneuvering. Winners include: Sarah Palin, Steve Forbes, George Pataki, and a host of others who had lent their support to Hoffman while criticizing the Scozzamonster. Now it’s up to Hoffman to show the polls they’re right and steamroll Owens in what will hopefully represent a turning point for conservatism in America.
GAY MARRIAGE
Washington looks like it will be the first state to approve gay unions via a popular referendum. The legislature voted to give gays all the rights of heterosexual couples except for using the word “marriage” to describe the union, and the polls have consistently shown double-digit leads for the pro-homosexual lobby. Thirty other states have already rejected similar measures, but a concentration of liberal activists in the region are set to overturn that.
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In Maine, it’s a dead heat for the pro- and anti- gay marriage advocates. A ballot measure there would call state-sanctioned gay unions “marriage’ and extend them the full rights of heterosexual unions. That state legislature passed the initiative in May, and since then, the fight has attracted national attention, with nearly $7 million spent in the fight. Traditional marriage advocates have been outspent by more than 2-1, with the gay rights movement descending on the state to influence the poll results. But in a special election, conservatives are more reliable than Democrats. That could spell success for the underdog pro-family movement.
GUBERNATORIAL RACES IN NEW JERSEY AND VIRGINIA
Republican Chris Christie in New Jersey has run an ill-funded, disorganized attack campaign against corrupt, incumbent Democrat John Corzine. Combined with the fact that Corzine has outspent Christie 8.8 million to 1.2 million, its impressive Christie has edged ahead of Corzine in eleventh-hour polling. Still, the race could go either way, which is a particularly depressing thought given that Corzine’s popularity sat somewhere between about zero and nothing shortly before the election began. Last-minute edges in the polls — despite the statistical dead heat — could signal that New Jersey voters remember who has been at their helm, and realize that something new is way, way better than what they already know.
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The Republican situation in New Jersey couldn’t be a better contrast to the Republican situation in Virginia, where Bob McDonnell has run an impeccable campaign and is expected to steamroll the Democratic opposition. Creigh Deeds has resorted to last-minute Obama PR, with the President swooping in and trying to hustle up the black vote in southern Virginia. Sorry, Deeds. Won't help you at this point.
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