United Liberty

The special election for NY-23 is getting interesting. I touched on this race a couple weeks ago, noting the very unprincipled position of the National Republican Congressional Committee and Republican National Committee for endorsing and spending money on Dede Scozzafava, who is easily the most statist candidate running in the race. She has been labeled as an ACORN-backing, tax-hiking, big spending liberal…and there is truth to much of that criticism. Even the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which is coming to the aide of Bill Owens, is attacking her as a tax hiker and the Daily Kos is pulling for her to win.

This race has caused a divide among conservatives and the Republican establishment, which argues that Scozzafava has the best chance to keep the seat for Republicans. The Club for Growth, Red State, Tea Party movement, Sean Hannity, former Senator Fred Thompson, Sarah Palin and former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (among many others) are all lining up behind Doug Hoffman, who is running under the Conservative Party banner.

By supporting Hoffman, conservatives risk handing this seat to Bill Owens, the Democratic Party endorsed candidate. They don’t seem too concerned about that, and you have to give them credit for standing against the Republican establishment (a few years too late, if you ask me).

Hoffman is on the rise. He is raising money and is creeping up in polling. There are also unconfirmed reports of Hoffman overtaking Scozzafava GOP internal polling.

Scozzafava has made some serious errors in underestimating her left-of-center positions on economic issues, such as supporting card-check (which she has tried to play both sides on).

Scozzafava, who is lagging in fundraising, has had a few campaign blunders, like when she called the cops on a Weekly Standard reporter, refusing to say whether she’ll run as a Republican if she loses in the primary in 2010 and holding a press conference outside of Hoffman’s headquarters only to have a dozen of his supporters holding Hoffman campaign signs behind her. You can watch the video and see on her face that she made a mistake.

When I wrote about this race earlier this month, I noted that Scozzafava holds views on social issues that are generally more attractive to libertarians, such as gay marriage and the Second Amendment (she received the NRA’s endorsement). However, she voted against legislation to regulate no-knock warrants, a policy that is criticized by civil libertarians. She is also pro-choice, but supports taxpayer subsidies for abortion.

The principles of free-markets and economic liberty should be at the forefront of this race because these are the most pressing issues we face as a nation, and it’s clear that Scozzafava isn’t a friend of the taxpayer or the free-market.