by Alisa Harris
NEW YORK—A third-party candidate is surging in upstate New York, riding a swelling conservative distaste for liberal Republicans and, his supporters say, sending a message to the Republican Party.
New York’s 23rd congressional district winner will replace Republican John McHugh, President Obama’s appointed Secretary of the Army. The district should have easily gone to Republican candidate Dede Scozzafava but many conservatives, wary of Scozzafava’s support of same-sex marriage and her Margaret Sanger award from Planned Parenthood, have thrown their weight behind Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman. In the last few weeks, he’s built national and grassroots support—and also has raked in cash.
Both social and fiscal conservatives have backed Hoffman, including American Values president Gary Bauer, the Club for Growth, and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. This past weekend, former GOP Sen. Rick Santorum tapped Hoffman as his choice, with Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty following suit. Prominent Republicans Steve Forbes and Fred Thompson, the National Organization for Marriage, and the Concerned Women for America PAC have all backed him, too. In the New York Post’s endorsement of Hoffman, it called Scozzafava “the product of an obscenely corrupt political bargain by GOP bosses that sells out their party—and New Yorkers generally.”
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