Could the Democratic victory Tuesday signal an opportunity for Florida Dems?
by Michael C. Bender | November 4th, 2009
Gov. Charlie Crist, left, cheerfully brushes past his rival in the Republican U.S. Senate race, former House Speaker Marco Rubio of Miami, at the start of a Florida Republican Party meeting in August. (AP)
Republicans are celebrating this morning after winning a number of high-profile races Tuesday in Florida, Virginia and New Jersey. But conservatives might have been early to claim a victory in an upstate New York U.S. House race, where a right-wing, third-party candidate helped force the moderate GOP candidate out of the race and, ultimately, hand Democrats a win in the Republican-leaning district.
Why does this race matter? Conservative Florida Republicans are looking to former House Speaker Marco Rubio — who applauded the insurgent contender in New York and encouraged comparisons with his own campaign — to hand Republican Gov. Charlie Crist a loss in the U.S. Senate GOP primary. Florida Democrats, meanwhile, are encouraging the turmoil in the rival party.
Here’s the take President Obama’s political adviser David Axelrod shared with POLITCO about the New York race:
“I think the big news in the race was the one that occurred before anybody voted, which was that the Republican nominee was booted off the ballot by the Palinistas. It sends a chilling message to moderate Republicans. … They’re driving folks our way.”
Meanwhile, its important to point out that Rubio has no plans to run as a third party candidate. RedState.com’s Erick Erickson:
“First, the GOP now must recognize it will either lose without conservatives or will win with conservatives. In 2008, many conservatives sat home instead of voting for John McCain. Now, in NY-23, conservatives rallied and destroyed the Republican candidate the establishment chose. … Secondly, and just as importantly, there has all of a sudden been a huge movement among some activists to go the third party route. We see in NY-23 that this is not possible as third parties are not viable. Third parties lack funding and ability for a host of reasons. Conservatives are going to have to work from within the GOP. The GOP had better pay attention.”
Tags: Charlie Crist, Marco Rubio
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November 4th, 2009 at 10:07 am
Not to quarrel with the analysis, but by what standard was Scozzafava “moderate”? Who is further left than she is? She was a high taxing, pro-choice, pro-union. If she is moderate, there are no liberals. What is so hard about writing “a liberal Republican”? They do exist, especially in the NE. One can’t objectively comment on intra-party disagreements if one can not see there are two sides, not just one side and a middle. There are conservative Democrats and liberal Republicans.
November 4th, 2009 at 10:36 am
Axelrod’s wishful thinking. One Congressional race where there was an anomaly. Get real people have had it with high taxes and unresponsive government. The Dems better think about the people for a change instead of what they need to say to get elected.
November 4th, 2009 at 10:37 am
This Erick Erickson isn’t very bright. His comments beg the question, why are these so called “moderates” and “conservatives” forced to share a political space called the Republican Party in the first place? Why are they forced to herd into a party simply to politically express themselves? Why can’t they have a viable chance at starting their own parties? The answer, because as Erickson himself said the other day, this is a”two party nation” which means it is an undemocratic and non-pluralistic nation. Until this two party system is resolved this type of nonsense of having to share political space between those who have no common principles will continue. The same goes for the Democratic Party.
November 4th, 2009 at 10:48 am
You gotta’ love the Palm Beach Post. Every newspaper headline in the country talks about the GOP sweep and the Post headline is “Could the Democratic victory Tuesday signal an opportunity for Florida Dems?” Almost laughable.
But to answer the question, the answer is NO. Unlike the VA and NJ races, where millions of people voted (and conclusions can be drawn), the NY District 23 race was very different.
First, the Democrat defeated Doug Hoffman, a third party candidate (Conservative Party of New York) that had never held office and self-admittedly knew very little about local issues. Instead, Hoffman said was running on national issues–which might have been effective–if had been running for national office!
Rubio is a former Speaker of the FL House with a fair amount of experience running for office and governing.
Second, Hoffman got 45% of the vote and lost to the Democrat 49-45, so the Democrat won with less than 50% of the vote.
There is nothing to suggest that anyone will be able to win the FL governor’s race with under 50% of the vote.
Finally, the Republicans in NY made a stupid mistake by nominating a liberal (not a moderate Republican) that actually voted to the left of the Democrat running.
Both Rubio and Crist are well-within the GOP’s ideological spectrum. Some conservatives may deny it, but Crist is a moderate not a liberal. And both would have the full support of the Republican Party regardless of who wins the primary.
What amazing is that Hoffman did as well as he did with no party support. If anything, I suspect that conservatives will be emboldened by the VA, NJ and NY-23 races. And right now, it appears that they have reason to be emboldened.
November 4th, 2009 at 10:48 am
Sorry, but no matter how hard Michael Bender, the PB Post and all the other Liberal, Leftists try….
Charlie Crist WILL BE the Republican candidate for Senate… AND WILL win the general election.
November 4th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
Well said, Don! By what measure could that woman be described as a moderate?
If she is a moderate, who could be considered liberal?
November 8th, 2009 at 3:00 am
hey mad mike, should we look into election fraud since you seem so confident crist is going to win? do you have some inside information? if so, please share.
November 22nd, 2009 at 11:51 pm
I’ve been engaged in taxes for lengthier then I care to admit, both on the personal side (all my employed lifetime!!) and from a legal point of view since passing the bar and following up on tax law. I’ve put up a lot of advice and corrected a lot of wrongs, and I must say that what you’ve posted makes complete sense. Please uphold the good work – the more individuals know the better they’ll be armed to deal with the tax man, and that’s what it’s all about.