Of elections and conservatives...

So... for ya'll non-political folks, the special election in NY-23 has become very interestin this weekend.

First, a little background: Dede Scozzafava (I think I got her name right) was picked by the local GOP committee to run as a Republican, though she supports Democrat proposals and is married to one. Doug Hoffman didn't think this was a good idea, so he decided to run as an "independant conservative". The national RNCC gave $900,000 to support Dede, Doug's been fending on his own with donations from normal folks. Newt Gingrich endorsed Dede, Sarah Palin endorsed Doug. After polling came out this weekend (Friday) which indicated she was going to lose badly, trailing even the Democrat in the race (in a district which has voted R for 140 years!) she decided to drop out. Late Saturday night, she basically anounced she was throwing her support behind the Democrat still in the race! She's supposed to be a Republican and she's supporting a Dem! WTF? Her reason? Because she wants someone committed to bringing the pork back to her district!

So now the pollsters are up in the air. Some say Hoffman, who has valid conservative creds, wins in double digits. Others say it's too close to call (+ or - one point either way at the moment). Which way will the 20% who supported Dede go? If they go conservative, they'll vote for Hoffman. Dede's name remains on the ballot, even though she's dropped out. Although she threw her vote to the Dem, her campaign manager supports Doug Hoffman! What does that say?

This is an important race if only because Doug's been supported nearly completely by us, the grassroots conservatives around the nation who want to send a message to the GOP. The message is simply: we won't accept RINOs as candidates. We won't support the GOP if you continue to run RINOs. This Election Day could be a precursor to a huge 2010 uprising, and I can only say it's about damn time!