What Dede Scozzafava says about the Republican establishment

While the governor's races in Virginia and New Jersey are getting most of the attention this election cycle, there is also a special congressional election taking place in the 23rd district of New York to replace a Republican congressman who resigned. The "Republican" in this race, handpicked by the GOP establishment and endorsed and funded by the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) is Dede Scozzafava. Here are the pertinent facts about Ms. Scozzafava. She is pro-abortion and supports gay marriage. As a member of the New York legislature, she repeatedly supported Democratic budgets, higher taxes, and bank bailouts. She supported the Obama stimulus bill, which every single Republican in the House opposed. She has close ties to organized labor (her husband is a union organizer) and she strongly supports "card check" legislation that would increase the power of the unions. She also has close ties to ACORN and is a personal friend of Bertha Lewis, ACORN's CEO. Although branded as a "moderate" by the media, she is down-the-line liberal on almost every issue. She has even been endorsed by the founder of the DailyKos website, who stated that she is to the left of many Democrats on social issues. Her latest antic is to file a false police report against a Weekly Standard reporter, which has resulted in calls for her resignation.

Thankfully, there is a real Republican in this race. Bill Hoffman, also a Republican, is running as a third-party candidate on the Conservative Party ticket. Hoffman, unlike Scozzafava, actually believes in conservative principles of less government and lower taxes and protecting human life. And he is running competitively in the polls. The sad thing is that the Republican establishment has not given Hoffman the time of day. Not only has Scozzafava been endorsed and funded by the NRCC (and the RNC), but this committee has even spent money making ads specifically attacking Hoffman. Scozzafava has a string of endorsements from GOP congressman and even from Newt Gingrich.

Sadly, this is not the first time this has happened. The Republican party raised a significant amount of money to re-elect liberal Republican Jim Jeffords in Vermont in 2000. Only a few months later, in April 2001, Jeffords switched parties and gave the Democrats a majority in the U.S. Senate. Of course, he didn't give back the money. Then in 2004, the Republican party and all the leading officials, including President Bush and Rick Santorum, endorsed and raised extensive funds for liberal Republican Arlen Specter, who barely squeaked out a win over real Republican Pat Toomey in the primary. Now, Arlen Specter has joined the Democratic party as well (surprise!). In 2006, the RNC endorsed very liberal Republican Lincoln Chafee in Rhode Island against a more conservative primary challenger. They not only endorsed Chafee, but also ran harsh negative ads against his conservative challenger, insisting that only Chafee could get elected in Rhode Island. And what happened? Chafee, the "electable" candidate, lost, despite giving assurances to various potential donors before the election that he might switch parties after the election. As can be readily seen, the Republican party establishment, including the Republican National Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee, has a history of endorsing very liberal candidates simply because they have an "R" after their name, and aggressively funding them even if they are running against conservatives.

If the Republican party continues to behave in this way, their funds are going to dry up. Voters are fed up with all the government spending, and they want real change in Washington. This is why the Republicans lost their majority in the first place. Sadly, many party leaders seem more concerned about electing anyone with an "R" after their name instead of standing up for freedom and conservative values. Isn't ObamaCare enough to make the Republican "leadership" develop a backbone? Where's the passion and the energy and principle with our supposed conservative leaders in Congress? Remember, most of the funds raised by the Republican party come from conservative donors who believe in conservative principles. If you are interested in making political contributions, I would strongly urge you to contribute directly to specific candidates that you support, instead of giving your money to the RNC or NRCC. If you give it to the party, it could end up going to support a candidate who has very different values from yours. Instead, target your support to candidates that deserve it, like Bob McDonnell in VA, or Bill Hoffman in NY, or Pat Toomey in PA, or Marco Rubio in FL.