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October 19, 2009
by Michael Patrick Leahy
6:00 am EDT
page 2 (Continued)
When asked for specific details of the Clinton County committee member vote in an exclusive
interview with The TCOT Report, Duprey stated that she ripped up the
results after the July 16th Plattsburgh candidate forum where the vote was taken, and couldn’t recall specific breakdowns between
Maroun, Scozzafava and Doheny. When further asked for the names of the
Clinton County attendees of the Plattsburgh candidate forum who had
supported Scozzafava, she refused to do so.
The consensus of support for Maroun was communicated directly to Chairman
Duprey by numerous participants. The language was strong and clear—Clinton
County Republicans were behind Paul Maroun. But when Duprey arrived at the
decisive meeting of county chairmen held in Potsdam the next week, she
ignored the wishes of her fellow Clinton County Republicans and cast the
deciding vote of the second ballot in favor of Scozzafava, her friend and
colleague in the Assembly.
Duprey’s conduct was a slap in the face at the concepts of transparency and
openness that many of the other county chairmen had tried to institute in a
deliberative process to select the nominee. And it fueled the anger of many
members of the Tea Party Movement in the area, who are now backing the
Conservative candidate, Doug Hoffman, who was one of nine candidates,
including Scozzafava and Maroun, who had sought the nomination and
participated in the candidate selection process.
The lack of transparency in this process, the “insider’s back room dealing”
that had the nomination wired for Scozzafava against the consensus will of
the rank and file Republicans of the district, lead to the pending electoral
disaster in which the Democrat, Bill Owens, an attorney from Plattsburgh, is
now poised to defeat both the Republican Scozzafava, and the Conservative
nominee, Doug Hoffman.
It is precisely this sort of tone deafness to the wishes of the
majority of the conservative electorate that has fueled the outrage of the
Tea Party Movement towards the Republican Party establishment. That outrage
is mirrored in the 23rd Congressional District, where Upstate New York Tea
Party leader Mark L. Barie, of Rouses Point, a Clinton County village on the
Canadian border, has personally endorsed Doug Hoffman, the Conservative Party
candidate.
On July 22nd, nine of the eleven county chairmen gathered at a popular
restaurant in Potsdam, New York to select the nominee. Oneida County
Chairman George Joseph had given his proxy to Franklin County Chairman Jim
Ellis, and Maggie Luck attended for Fulton County Chairman Susan McNeil, who
was in contact with her by phone throughout the entire process.
After some preliminary discussion, the first round balloting began. The counties were called in alphabetical order. When all eleven counties votes were counted using the population weighted formula, the liberal Scozzafavva had 45% of the vote, with Doheny and Maroun close behind at 28% and 27% of the vote respectively.
After the first round ballot, many of the chairmen in attendance settled in
for a long day. Though the liberal Scozzafava was only five percent shy of a
majority, the two conservative candidates split fifty-five per cent of the
vote.
During the discussion period between ballots, Franklin County Chairman Jim
Ellis made an impassioned plea articulating why voting for Dede would
imperil the outcome of the election. “Everyone knew that the Conservative
Party would never support Dede. In this district, the Republican needs the
Conservative line to have the best chance of victory. McHugh had it. All
eight of the other candidates would have received the Conservative Line.
Only Dede would not get it. And I told the other county chairmen they were
making a serious mistake not taking this into account. If the Conservatives
ran a candidate, it would cut into the Republicans vote.”
Ellis’ arguments fell on deaf ears. Duprey, Corey, Dancks, and McNeil all
acknowledge they didn’t anticipate that the inevitable Conservative
challenge to Dede would cause much harm. In the case of Dancks and McNeil,
inexperience in politics could be a possible excuse for their terrible
miscalculation. Dancks had assumed the County chair position only days after
McHugh’s announcement in June, and McNeil had been in the position for only
a few months. But Corey had served as county chair for four years, and
Duprey had spent a lifetime in politics, serving as Clinton County Treasurer
from 1986 to 2004, and in the Assembly from 2004. Duprey’s failure to
recognize the strategic risk posed by the predictable Conservative challenge
to Scozzafava was inexplicable.
When the second ballot began, Clinton County, being first alphabetically, was called first.
Several of the attendees were shocked when Duprey switched her vote from
the conservative Paul Maroun, who enjoyed broad support in Clinton County,
to her friend and colleague, the liberal Dede Scozzafava.
"How could Janet vote for Scozzafava when everything they heard from Clinton
County was strong support for Maroun, and little support for Scozzafava?"
they wondered.
Everyone in the room did the math instantly. With Clinton County's switch,
Scozzafava was over the top. Once the numbers became clear, the remaining party chairmen reluctantly followed suit, knowing that they had just nominated a candidate who would ignite a civil war among Republicans in the district. In a tribute to party discipline, though clearly not to political common sense, all eleven county chairmen ended up publicly supporting Scozzafava as the nominee. Many of them would soon come to regret that decision.
The impression that the entire county chairman nomination meeting was stage
managed in secret by Duprey and Scozzafava was re-enforced when the
nomination was secured. As the county chairmen walked out of the restaurant that day,
there was Scozzafava, with the cameras of the local Watertown television station
waiting to break the news that she was the nominee.
In an exclusive interview with the TCOT Report, Duprey justified her quick
switch from Maroun to Scozzafava in the second ballot, saying “it was clear
Dede was the winner. She had just a whisker below 50%. She was at 49%, maybe
more. Everyone wants a winner. Had the circumstances been reversed, I would
have voted for Paul in the second ballot.”
But many of the other county chairmen have a very different recollection of
the events between the first and second ballot. They find Duprey's characterization that Scozzafava was the clear winner with 45% of the weighted vote (not the 49% Duprey recalls)
while two conservative candidates combined for 55% as laughable. Had the conservative votes consolidated around one candidate prior to Duprey's surprise vote switch, the nominee would have been either Maroun or Doheny.
And if either Doheny or Maroun had been the nominee, Conservative State Party Chairman Mike Long had made it clear either one would have received the Conservative nomination as well, virtually assuring a Republican victory in the special election.
But this logical argument, did not resonate with either Duprey, Martin, Corey, or Dancks. In retrospect this lack of awareness of the Conservative threat that accompanied a Scozzafava nomination seems unfathomable.
Several county chairmen also seemed to be oblivious to parts of Scozzafava’s
record, or the potential vulnerability that record presented. The Working
Families Party affiliation did not register, nor did her “RINO” publicly
announced support for Obama’s stimulus package.
Conservative opponent Hoffman’s web site highlights Scozzafava’s support for
Obama’s stimulus package. When asked if they could either confirm or deny if
this claim was factual, neither Chairman Corey of Jefferson County or
Chairman Dancks of Madison County were knowledgeable of their candidate’s
position on that issue. Clinton County’s Duprey, in an exclusive interview,
acknowledged that Scozzafava had in fact publicly indicated support of
Obama’s stimulus package “but only,” Duprey said “as it relates to public
infrastructure projects.” Duprey elaborated “I think that’s a very
conservative position, one that all conservative across the country would
agree with.”
Clearly, conservatives around the blogosphere, ranging from Erick Erickson at Red State to Michelle Malkin have a very different definition of conservativism than Duprey does.
Arguably, every single Republican member of the House of Representatives also has a different definition of conservatism,
since they unanimously voted against the Obama Stimulus Bill when it passed the House in February.
When news of the Scozzafava nomination spread throughout the Republicans in the 23rd District, the reaction varied from lukewarm enthusiasm to outright disdain. One of those deeply troubled by the nomination was Saranac Lake accountant Doug Hoffman. Hoffman had been one of the nine candidates who had sought the Republican nomination, and he had not fared well in the process. Though intelligent, well respected, and an uncompromising ideological conservative, Hoffman wasn't much of a stump speaker. He was new to the political process, and his lack of polish showed.
Despite having signed a pledge to support the eventual nominee to emerge from the process, Hoffman considered the possibility of asking for the Conservative Party's endorsement to run against Scozzafavva, making it a three way race. When Paul Maroun declined Mike Long's offer to run on the Conservative line, Hoffman approached Long and asked for the nod. Happy to have a credible candidate, Long agreed, and a three way race was on.
The Democrats, for their part, took notice of the Republicans and their poor choice as nominee. With a three way race, the Democrat had a chance. Responding to the opportunity, a credible candidate, well respected Plattsburgh attorney Bill Owens stepped forward. With a credible candidate, a split between the Republicans and Conservatives, the Democratic Party money began pouring in. All the usual liberal suspects, including the infamous SEIU, which threw in $100,000 last week, lined up to throw cash behind Owens.
Meanwhile, Scozzafava's fundraising lagged, and Hoffman's climbed, as both the Club for Growth and former Republican Senator from Tennessee Fred Thompson endorsed him.
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