In Hoffman’s Wake, North Country GOP Grapples With Identity Crisis
Gearing up for Owens challenge, moderate Republicans try to keep ther grip on nomination
Tue, 15 Dec 2009 11:00:00
Democrats have tried for years to lure Janet Duprey, a two-term Assemblywoman from Plattsburgh and the Clinton GOP chair, into leaving the Republican Party.
The state Democratic chair, June O’Neill, singled her out at a “Salute to Labor” dinner in Saint Lawrence last year, joking in front of the 500 or so patrons, “The Republicans don’t want you, our tent’s bigger than theirs—come on over.”
So far, Duprey has resisted the overtures. But they have only intensified after national conservative activists drummed her close friend and ally, Dede Scozzafava, out of this year’s special congressional election.
Rather than embrace the litmus tests of the conservatives, as many Republicans have, Duprey and Scozzafava are fighting to pull the North Country GOP back toward the center. And the shifting political tides there, they say, have only validated their efforts.
“My Assembly district is now a Democrat district,” Duprey said, describing the shift in party registration, adding that such a change was “unheard of in the North Country.”
The shift in enrollment seems to herald a new political reality that some Republicans say has gone unnoticed in the aftermath of the special election, and could imperil GOP attempts to recapture the seat. The harsh economic climate in the North Country has underscored the political importance of federal spending and organized labor, two issues that make the district difficult for orthodox Republicans.
“That district is full of government agencies. You have colleges, you have prisons, you have a lot of unions up there,” said former Plattsburgh Mayor Daniel Stewart, who is now a state corrections commissioner. “They are a constituency that you have to listen to and that you have to court.”
The tension between the traditional conservative platform, often seen as hostile to organized labor, together with the political quirks of the North Country, could set up yet another debilitating confrontation between conservatives and centrist Republicans looking to challenge Owens next year in an area that has become the right wing’s Waterloo.
In order to appeal to blue-collar voters in the district, GOP candidates will likely have to demonstrate some sympathy for union issues, and a willingness to support federal aid programs such as the stimulus bill.
“McHugh was for card-check,” said state Republican chairman Ed Cox, referring to legislation that would make it easier for workers to unionize. “This is now a swing congressional seat. … You do have to reach out to the other side, certainly to the independent voters and some of the Democratic voters, and bring them over if you’re going to win.”
But the vast majority of the money in the Republican Party comes from national donors and interest groups, who overwhelmingly oppose the stimulus program and card-check legislation, and who have demonstrated a willingness to torpedo candidates who do not satisfy their ideological litmus tests.
That gauntlet has left Democrats confident that they can defend Owens and consolidate their gains in the North Country next year.
“The Republicans misread that district at their own peril,” said Rep. Steve Israel, the national recruitment chair for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “It is a quintessential moderate district.”
Owens has made developing the local infrastructure a key plank in his agenda, and has also used long-stalled construction projects as opportunities to forge relationships with local Republicans.
Scozzafava, meanwhile, has said she is working closely with Owens on a Veterans Administration hospital in her district and would not rule out endorsing him again next year.
Projects that have been in the works for decades, such as the so-called “Rooftop Highway” that would run from Plattsburgh to Watertown and generate as many as 27,000 new jobs, have received a rush of attention from senior Democratic officials, such as Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand.
“There’s a recognition among leaders in Congress that his district requires our attention,” Israel said.
The inflow of federal dollars, the vast majority of which will go toward union jobs, could put Republicans in a difficult position. And already the fissures that erupted in the special election are beginning to show.
Paul Maroun, a conservative Franklin legislator who won the endorsements of three Republican county chairs in the nominating process for the special election, has emerged as the favorite of the right. Less than 24 hours after the election, he threatened to mount a primary challenge against Duprey because of her socially liberal positions and support for Scozzafava, but is now mulling a second run for the congressional seat.
Meanwhile, Matt Doheny, a pro-choice Manhattan lawyer who has already channeled as much as half a million dollars into his campaign account, has won the favor of more moderate Republicans because he would not have to depend on outside interest groups for money.
Plattsburgh Mayor Donald Kasprzak, Assembly Member Will Barclay, former McCain campaign staffer Josh Lynch and Doug Hoffman, the Conservative candidate in the special election, have also expressed interest in challenging Owens.
Whoever ends up with the nomination, Republicans agree, will have to make considerable inroads against a Democratic incumbent in a short amount of time. If that candidate is hostile to organized labor and opposed to government spending on infrastructure projects, moderate Republicans warn, the party could lose one of its best chances at winning back a congressional seat next year.
Republicans have not always rejected ideological diversity as heresy, said Stewart, the former Plattsburgh mayor, especially in the North Country. In 1998, Pataki courted Stewart, then a Democrat and an openly gay candidate for mayor, into the GOP in order to broaden the party’s appeal and compete with the Democrats.
A decade later, Pataki became the first major New York Republican to endorse Hoffman over Scozzafava, citing some of the very same moderate positions he and Stewart once celebrated. The move, Stewart said, illustrated the Republican Party’s failure to grasp the distinct political sympathies of North Country voters.
“They are not died-in-the-wool conservatives or liberals,” he said. “They are just people who are trying to get by.”
The state Democratic chair, June O’Neill, singled her out at a “Salute to Labor” dinner in Saint Lawrence last year, joking in front of the 500 or so patrons, “The Republicans don’t want you, our tent’s bigger than theirs—come on over.”
So far, Duprey has resisted the overtures. But they have only intensified after national conservative activists drummed her close friend and ally, Dede Scozzafava, out of this year’s special congressional election.
Rather than embrace the litmus tests of the conservatives, as many Republicans have, Duprey and Scozzafava are fighting to pull the North Country GOP back toward the center. And the shifting political tides there, they say, have only validated their efforts.
“My Assembly district is now a Democrat district,” Duprey said, describing the shift in party registration, adding that such a change was “unheard of in the North Country.”
The shift in enrollment seems to herald a new political reality that some Republicans say has gone unnoticed in the aftermath of the special election, and could imperil GOP attempts to recapture the seat. The harsh economic climate in the North Country has underscored the political importance of federal spending and organized labor, two issues that make the district difficult for orthodox Republicans.
“That district is full of government agencies. You have colleges, you have prisons, you have a lot of unions up there,” said former Plattsburgh Mayor Daniel Stewart, who is now a state corrections commissioner. “They are a constituency that you have to listen to and that you have to court.”
The tension between the traditional conservative platform, often seen as hostile to organized labor, together with the political quirks of the North Country, could set up yet another debilitating confrontation between conservatives and centrist Republicans looking to challenge Owens next year in an area that has become the right wing’s Waterloo.
In order to appeal to blue-collar voters in the district, GOP candidates will likely have to demonstrate some sympathy for union issues, and a willingness to support federal aid programs such as the stimulus bill.
“McHugh was for card-check,” said state Republican chairman Ed Cox, referring to legislation that would make it easier for workers to unionize. “This is now a swing congressional seat. … You do have to reach out to the other side, certainly to the independent voters and some of the Democratic voters, and bring them over if you’re going to win.”
But the vast majority of the money in the Republican Party comes from national donors and interest groups, who overwhelmingly oppose the stimulus program and card-check legislation, and who have demonstrated a willingness to torpedo candidates who do not satisfy their ideological litmus tests.
That gauntlet has left Democrats confident that they can defend Owens and consolidate their gains in the North Country next year.
“The Republicans misread that district at their own peril,” said Rep. Steve Israel, the national recruitment chair for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “It is a quintessential moderate district.”
Owens has made developing the local infrastructure a key plank in his agenda, and has also used long-stalled construction projects as opportunities to forge relationships with local Republicans.
Scozzafava, meanwhile, has said she is working closely with Owens on a Veterans Administration hospital in her district and would not rule out endorsing him again next year.
Projects that have been in the works for decades, such as the so-called “Rooftop Highway” that would run from Plattsburgh to Watertown and generate as many as 27,000 new jobs, have received a rush of attention from senior Democratic officials, such as Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand.
“There’s a recognition among leaders in Congress that his district requires our attention,” Israel said.
The inflow of federal dollars, the vast majority of which will go toward union jobs, could put Republicans in a difficult position. And already the fissures that erupted in the special election are beginning to show.
Paul Maroun, a conservative Franklin legislator who won the endorsements of three Republican county chairs in the nominating process for the special election, has emerged as the favorite of the right. Less than 24 hours after the election, he threatened to mount a primary challenge against Duprey because of her socially liberal positions and support for Scozzafava, but is now mulling a second run for the congressional seat.
Meanwhile, Matt Doheny, a pro-choice Manhattan lawyer who has already channeled as much as half a million dollars into his campaign account, has won the favor of more moderate Republicans because he would not have to depend on outside interest groups for money.
Plattsburgh Mayor Donald Kasprzak, Assembly Member Will Barclay, former McCain campaign staffer Josh Lynch and Doug Hoffman, the Conservative candidate in the special election, have also expressed interest in challenging Owens.
Whoever ends up with the nomination, Republicans agree, will have to make considerable inroads against a Democratic incumbent in a short amount of time. If that candidate is hostile to organized labor and opposed to government spending on infrastructure projects, moderate Republicans warn, the party could lose one of its best chances at winning back a congressional seat next year.
Republicans have not always rejected ideological diversity as heresy, said Stewart, the former Plattsburgh mayor, especially in the North Country. In 1998, Pataki courted Stewart, then a Democrat and an openly gay candidate for mayor, into the GOP in order to broaden the party’s appeal and compete with the Democrats.
A decade later, Pataki became the first major New York Republican to endorse Hoffman over Scozzafava, citing some of the very same moderate positions he and Stewart once celebrated. The move, Stewart said, illustrated the Republican Party’s failure to grasp the distinct political sympathies of North Country voters.
“They are not died-in-the-wool conservatives or liberals,” he said. “They are just people who are trying to get by.”
