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goober
This sure looked like an usurpation of the party structure by the Palin wing.
Scozzafava was selected by the NY GOP party, not by the national party, to challenge her with a candidate that was not from the district, that knew little to nothing about the issues facing the district showed complete disdain for the local party, and for the best interests of the district, in the hopes of characterizing an election in a district that has been Republican since 1871 as a referendum on Obama. Maybe the best thing for the remains of the moderate Republicans is to join the Democratic Party and to work for their moderate goals from within that party, which at least will be represented in congress.
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Gee, a third party candidate comes within 5 points of winning after being opposed by the party establishment until two days before the race. Sounds more like a solid base of support to build on for the more conservative elements in the district. Furthermore, the most liberal of the three candidates LOST.
I have said all along, I would be far more sympathetic to arguments for "party unity" and national support for local candidates when those candidates are the clear choice of the voters, Scozzafava was not.
This race did show the importance of party unity (for all the negatives you cite, and add to that being a third party candidate, he did come very, very close to winning) but were you are wrong is in what message it sent as to which of the two candidates the party should have united behind.
Bottom line, disappointed that Hoffman didn't win, but not at all disappointed that Owens was the winner rather than Scozzafava. Odds are that Scozzafava would have been just as, if not more, reliable a vote on legislation for the democrats as Owens, but would also have provided a veneer of bipartisanship to boot (that is if she didn't flat out become a democrat after the election if she'd won). Good night for the GOP, but could have been a great night if they hadn't backed Scozzafava and flushed nearly a million bucks down the toilet. Consider the impact nationally if they had spent a million in CA-10 rather than NY-23. Hoffman may have won without all the money backing Scozzafava, and the CA-10 could have been even much closer than the 10 pt race it was in a reliably blue disctrict.