All Blog Posts from Political Hotsheet

There are not enough outstanding votes left for Doug Hoffman, the Conservative Party candidate who conceded-and-then-unconceded following his apparent loss in the closely-watched NY-23 House race, to catch his opponant.

The Watertown Times reports that Democrat Bill Owens now leads Hoffman by 3,105 votes with only 3,072 absentee ballots to be counted. Even if every one of those ballots went to Hoffman, he still couldn't close the gap.

Hoffman formally announced Wednesday that he was withdrawing his election night concession, echoing a comment on Glenn Beck’s radio show. He blamed community-organizing group ACORN for stealing the election, though he provided no evidence.

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The Conservative Party candidate who conceded a closely-watched upstate New York House race has formally repudiated that concession in a statement that suggests community-organizing group ACORN stole the election for his Democratic opponent.

Doug Hoffman first suggested he was "unconceding" earlier this week on Glenn Beck's radio show.

"Recent developments leave me to wonder who is scheming behind closed doors, twisting arms and stealing elections from the voters of NY-23," he writes in a message on his Web site titled "Stop Another Stolen Election." "I'm sure you are as dismayed as I am to learn of the mischief that took place in Oswego and neighboring counties. We know this would not be the first time for the ACORN faithful to tamper with democracy."

"ACORN and the unions did their best to try and sway the results to Obamacare supporter Bill Owens," he adds. Hoffman goes on to request donations to help force officials to keep a recanvassing effort going that he suggests will show he was the true winner of the contest.

Hoffman offers no specific evidence of malfeasance by ACORN, and a call to his spokesman, Rob Ryan, was not returned.

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Conservative party candidate Doug Hoffman (left) has "unconceded" the closely-watched N.Y. 23 House race, which he had previously thought he had lost to Democratic candidate Bill Owens, The Hill reports.

Hoffman, a favorite of the tea party movement, conceded on election night amid returns that showed he was down by more than 5,000 votes. But as the Associated Press reported on Friday, a "routine recanvassing of votes shows Owens' lead has narrowed to 3,026 votes, with about 5,800 absentee ballots received so far that have yet to be counted."

Hoffman announced his unconcession on Glenn Beck's radio show this afternoon.

"…if I knew this information at the election night, I would not have conceded," he reportedly told Beck.

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The two Democrats who won election Tuesday – Bill Owens, who won a much-discussed upstate New York race against conservative party candidate Doug Hoffman, and former California Gov. John Garamendi – were sworn in this week.

Owens' swearing-in took place today, while Garamendi's took place on Thursday, as the New York Times reports.

The addition of the two lawmakers comes as Democrats are poised to vote on health care reform legislation, and with some moderate Democrats vowing to vote against the legislation, Speaker Nancy Pelosi can use all the Democrats she can get.

House leaders have reportedly not yet secured the 218 votes they need to pass the bill, prompting a possible delay in the vote, which had been set for Saturday.

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In an interview with CBS News White House correspondent Peter Maer, Senior White House Adviser David Axelrod said that the two Republican gubernatorial candidates who won yesterday avoided what he called "the Palin/Pawlenty scorched earth platform" of Washington Republicans.

"I don't think the Republicans ran particularly on a Republican message in Virginia and New Jersey," Axelrod said, arguing that the most important lesson from yesterday's contests is that "their party is deeply divided."

Axelrod described New Jersey Republican Chris Christie and Virginia Republican Bob McDonnell as "moderate or moderate sounding" candidates who avoided "the themes that you hear from Washington Republicans."

The GOP-backed candidate who lost, conservative party candidate Doug Hoffman (who was running for an upstate New York House seat), is the one who embraced those themes, he said.

"They've got a deep problem in their party, and they better heal it or they're going to continue to lose market share," argued Axelrod.

Listen to the interview

The White House adviser said the House race, in which the moderate Republican candidate, Dede Scozzafava, withdrew amid poor poll and fundraising numbers, was "telling and instructive" because it showed how a "civil war" had erupted in the Republican Party.

Axelrod said the message to moderate Republicans from the contest was that "there's no place for you in this party." He pointed to the fact that Tim Pawlenty, the potential 2012 GOP presidential candidate, had been critical of moderate Maine Republican Olympia Snowe as further evidence.

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"The race for New York's 23rd District is not over, just postponed until 2010," according to former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

The 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate enthusiastically endorsed Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman in the special election. Hoffman managed to push the Republican candidate Dede Scozzafava out of the race days before the election, but the Democrat prevailed Tuesday night.

The loss, coupled with two big gubernatorial wins for more moderate Republicans in New Jersey and Virginia, raises questions about whether high-profile conservatives like Palin should continue to push the party to the right.

"After the Republicans come off their Cloud Nine, they have a major issue to resolve within their own party: in what direction is the GOP going?" asks CBS News' Political Director Steve Chaggaris.

On her Facebook page early Wednesday morning, Palin suggested the Republican Party should continue to pursue a more conservative identity.

"I commend Doug Hoffman and all the other under-dog candidates who have the courage to put themselves out there and run against the odds," she wrote. "To the tireless grassroots patriots who worked so hard in that race and to future citizen-candidates like Doug, please remember Reagan's words of encouragement after his defeat in 1976: 'The cause goes on.'"

Palin's comments echo those of Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele.

"Now the bottom line is this, the drama of 23 was nice and cute and fun, [and] everybody made fun about how the party's all fractured," Steele said on the CBS Early Show. "The reality is now that we have a chance to get the seat back in about a year, which we likely will."

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After a surprisingly narrow, 5-point loss to mayor Michael Bloomberg, New York City Democrats are wondering: With a little more effort from certain quarters, might Comptroller William Thompson actually have been able to take down the wealthy incumbent?

That prospect was unthinkable for much of the campaign, as most polls had Thompson trailing Bloomberg by double digits. The mayor, an independent running on the Republican line, outspent his rival by a 14 to one spending margin, according to the New York Times. Preliminary figures suggest the cost of each vote ended up being about $157 for Bloomberg, and only $13 for Thompson.

"A lot of Democratic donors who sat on their wallets are kicking themselves tonight," Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-Brooklyn, tells the New York Daily News. The clear implication: Had those donors not opted-out of the race based on the belief that it was unwinnable, Thompson might just have become mayor.

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President Obama was in no mood to talk about the election results as he walked from the Oval Office this morning to Marine One idling on the South Lawn.

He ignored pleas from reporters to offer some comment on yesterday's vote that included Republican victories in the only two states with gubernatorial elections: New Jersey and Virginia.

He had campaigned and raised money in both of those states. On three visits to New Jersey, he did five rallies and/or fund-raisers for incumbent Gov. Jon Corzine. And he went twice to Virginia on behalf of candidate Creigh Deeds. Both lost.

The Democratic defeats in the gubernatorial races are a blow to the White House. Press secretary Robert Gibbs admitted Mr. Obama was disappointed "his friend Jon Corzine" didn't win re-election and telephoned him and Deeds to offer words of consolation after their defeats last night.

But the White House challenges any suggestions that the election results reflect voter rejection of Mr. Obama or his agenda.

"People didn't do to the polls to register support for or opposition to the president," Gibbs told reporters this morning at an off-camera briefing in his office.

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Election wins in the New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial races show the GOP has "found its voice again," the Republican party's chairman said Wednesday.

During an appearance on CBS' "The Early Show", Michael Steele touted the victories of New Jersey's Chris Christie and Virginia's Bob McDonell as a "bellwether for the party."

Steele said the wins, in two states carried by President Barack Obama last fall, recast the GOP as a "transcendent party."

"The conservative message resonated, but it was translated in a way that people felt embraced by it at the polls," Steele said.

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President Obama's campaign manager played down Wednesday the significance of election results that saw Republicans steal two governorships from his party, and gave a glowing assessment of his boss's performance one year into the job.

"I think generally these elections tend to be overrated in terms of what they mean later," David Plouffe told "The Early Show" of the GOP victories in New Jersey and Virginia.

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