Dede Disses Her Party; Drops Out, Endorses Democrat

In my absence, a lot has happened in the race to replace Congressman John McHugh. Conflicting polls, shifting support, big name endorsements, independent expenditures, attack ads out the wazoo. The list goes on and on. The biggest news in this race so far took place over the weekend. Dede Scozzafava, the Republican candidate in the race, dropped out on Saturday, three days before the election. If that news wasn’t big enough, she followed it up on Sunday with an endorsement of Bill Owens, the Democrat in the race. Keep in mind: this was after the Republican Party dumped nearly $1 million dollars into supporting her campaign.

Because this all happened over the weekend, the final polls in the race (which were taken over the weekend) don’t give us too much information, though it appears that Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman is the biggest winner after Scozzafava’s decision to exit the race. Scozzafava remains on the ballot on both the Republican and Independence lines. Most Republicans that supported Dede switched their allegiance to Hoffman, but the Independence Party chairman endorsed Bill Owens. It has been a crazy few days, but it is all over (hopefully) tomorrow night.

I've added a video below as an example of how ridiculous Dede Scozzafava's campaign was. She held a press conference outside of one of Doug Hoffman's campaign offices, apparently forgetting that campaign offices are usually full of volunteers and campaign signs.

David Gay is Back

David Gay, local Republican rabble-rouser, is up to his old tricks. After causing a brief headache for party-designated congressional candidate Dale Sweetland last year, Mr. Gay has a new quest in this year’s election. David Gay threw his hat in the ring as a last-minute write-in challenger to Van Robinson, a Democrat, and the unopposed candidate for Common Council President. Though he surely knows he cannot win, the last-minute write-in campaign is certainly a good way to keep his name in the news as he contemplates another run for Congress as a Republican in 2010 (the only Republican to announce so far being Paul Bertan of Camillus).

Speaking of running for Congress, I have heard quite a few names of potential Republican challengers to Democrat Congressman Maffei being thrown around, not one of which have impressed me. Until now. Within the last week, a credible source inside local Republican politics sent me an email and dropped the name of a potential candidate to challenge Maffei. I will not name names until it can be independently confirmed, but if this potential challenger decides to jump in, he/she will instantly be considered a top-tier candidate, if not the Republican frontrunner.

It seems I have hijacked my own post. I didn’t mean to go off track. Back to David Gay: if Mr. Gay can draw enough write-in votes for Common Council President to gain some media coverage, he will be given more credibility to build his case for his potential future run for office as a Libertarian/Republican. Rest assured, this blog will be following him closely.

Stay Tuned

Unfortunately for myself and for my readers, my personal and private life demanded much attention from me in the last few weeks and I have been unable to keep this website properly updated. For this I apologize. The timing couldn’t be any worse as these last few weeks have been leading up to an important election with many interesting races on the ballot, specifically the Syracuse mayoral race and the special congressional election n New York’s 23rd congressional district. I have been unable to post recently about the news affecting these particular races, along with other races and candidates on the ballot, but two interesting stories from the last few days are drawing me back momentarily to take the time and update this blog. These updates will follow this post later today.