Just moments ago, both CNN and Fox News declared Democrat Bill Owens the winner of NY23.
The biggest disappointment here is that this truly was such a hard fought battle for Hoffman who lagged in 3rd place behind the original Republican (RINO) candidate and Owens for the past several weeks. It wasn’t until Sarah Palin endorsed him 13 days ago that he had begun to pick up speed. After just one week of soaring in the polls, the soar-losing liberal-Republican dropped out and took her few loyalists with her to tip the scale for Owens – even though Owens supports a public option for health care, something the liberal-leaning Scozzofava claimed to oppose. Scozzofava even worked tirelessly phoning voters of the district stomping for Owens.
This was a god-awful case of bad timing. Because there was no primary in this district, a committee of closed-door politicians selected the candidates FOR the voters. With just 13 days under his belt as the head candidate against Owens, Hoffman lost by – get this – 3 lousy percentage points with the candidates virtually splitting the counties in half.
If the district had allowed the constituents the opportunity to vote in a primary, Hoffman could have had a much larger chance at having the luxury of competing with ample campaign funding giving him the victory he deserved tonight.
This seat will be up again in one year – it will be interesting to see if Hoffman comes back for a fair and decent first class campaign enjoyed by both Scozzofava and Owens.
One thing is for sure, Scozzofava and her behavior during this entire display of fairness and democracy should be a lesson to us all going forward with regard to RINOS – they are never to be trusted again!
Now, I will leave it up to Mel or Phil to gloat about the massive wins in New Jersey and the entire state of Virginia. 
steveflesher
Philip
Mel Maguire
Mark Ciavola
