New Ten Buck Friday Poll Out

It's a new week and a new batch of candidates up for a poll over at Right Klik.

For those of you new to Ten Buck Fridays, it's simple enough concept for even the most liberal of democrats to follow.

Here's how it works: For Ten Buck Fridays, congressional candidates are nominated and voted on throughout the week. The winner is announced Friday and cross-promoted amongst the supporting conservative blogs. These blogs then promote a $10 per donation money bomb for the winning candidate. Would you go to the link I've posted here and cast your vote for me? Tell your friends!

Doug Hoffman is up this week. He was in the special election in the 23rd Congressional District in New York state last year. He barely lost out to the Democrat then. Help push him over the top today.

Biden Heads to Upstate New York

UPDATED BELOW!

How nervous must the Democrats be about NY-23 to send Joe Biden to campaign for Owens? And he's bringing country singer John Rich with him.

Via Memeorandum, Biden is heading to upstate New York to make an eleventh hour push for Bill Owens. This is basically a two man race now between Owens and conservative Doug Hoffman. Dede Scozzafava's campaign has collapsed faster than the Chicago Cubs season did this year. With the RNC now welcoming Hoffman to caucus with them once he wins, Scozzafava must be steaming.

Politico reports that the Biden rally will be Monday in Watertown:

The visit by Biden underlines how badly national Democrats want to snatch this seat, Republican-held since before the Civil War, from the GOP. But it also reflects Democrats' 11th-hour efforts to avoid a clean sweep Tuesday of the three mostly closely-watched races. With Republicans almost certainly winning the Virginia gubernatorial contest and the New Jersey governor's race very much up in the air, the upstate New York congressional race may represent the party's best chance for victory.

We can only hope Stacy McCain will stick around up there to cover Biden's visit; maybe some more shoe leather donations would help!

Allahpundit reminds us how "popular" Biden is lately.

Smells like desperation to me!

Update: Add another reason for Scozzafava to get steamed; Rep. Issa, who supported her previously, is backing away from her now and is overnighting a $5,000 to Doug Hoffman.

(Cross-posted at And So it Goes in Shreveport)

NY-23: Pataki Endorses Hoffman

Former New York Governor George Pataki has endorsed NY-23 candidate Doug Hoffman. Via Memeorandum, here is Pataki's statement:

As someone personally engaged in the way of life in the Adirondacks and Northern New York, I’m deeply concerned about the course of our nation and the outcome of the election in the 23rd Congressional District.

Simply put, we cannot afford to give another vote to Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid we cannot afford another vote for higher taxes, we cannot afford another vote for government run health care and we absolutely cannot afford another vote to take away from hard working men and women the right to secret ballot.

That is why tonight, I’m proud to endorse Doug Hoffman, a Republican, running on the Conservative line for Congress in the 23rd Congressional District.

Doug Hoffman will stand up to Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. He will fight for all the residents of northern New York. He will fight for our proud servicemen and women at Fort Drum, our dairy farmers in Lowville and our manufacturers in Plattsburgh.

As a businessman, and as a life-long resident of the North Country Doug Hoffman understands the need to lower taxes on working families, the need to stand tall against terror and he won’t back phony stimulus programs that fail to create the jobs we need and leaves a mountain of debt to our children.

When elected to Congress Doug will work to reduce our taxes, he will stand tall against those who despise our freedoms and he will be a vigilant stalwart against those who would substitute government programs for individual initiative.

And Doug Hoffman can win.

I urge all the voters of the 23rd Congressional District – Republican Democrat, Independent and Conservative to come out and vote for Doug Hoffman for Congress.

Pataki now joins a very, very long list of folks who have endorsed Hoffman, including Sarah Palin, Rick Santorum, Steve Forbes, Tim Pawlenty, and my own Representative, John Fleming. Conservatives4Palin has the list, here.

Now it seems that even the NRCC is bailing on Scozzafava as Pete Sessions says that Doug Hoffman would be "welcome with open arms" into the ranks of the Republican leadership. Politico reports that :

On Thursday afternoon, Sessions appeared to tacitly acknowledge that Hoffman may represent the GOP’s best chance to keep the Republican-held seat from being picked up by a Democrat.

“I think it’s pretty clear that a person who would vote for John Boehner, support tax cuts, support growing our economy, and defeat Nancy Pelosi’s tax and spend agenda will be really welcome in our conference, and I think having a person who can win that district off that message would be really good for the Republican Party,” Sessions said.

What? Now that Hoffman has surged past Scozzafava in the polls, leaving her now in third place behind the Democrat Bill Owens, Sessions wants in on the Hoffmania? I'm sure Scozzafava was thrilled when she read that one.

Don't expect the NRCC to have learned any real lessons here. As long as the Republican leadership is out of touch with the conservative base, they will continue to support whichever candidate they feel can win the seat. As conservatives, we need to send our support directly to those candidates that reflect our values rather than to the RNC as long as they continue to prop up candidates like Scozzafava and Charlie Crist in Florida.

Time posts an article today which sums up this race:

Jeff Graham, the mayor of Watertown and a member of the Independence Party, says Hoffman is "a meek, soft-spoken guy who is mad as hell and just decided to go ahead and do this 2009 version of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. And it seems to be working."

Run Doug, Run!

(Cross-posted at And So it Goes in Shreveport)

NY23: Your RNC/NRCC Contributions Pay for Attack Ad Against Doug Hoffman

GOP dollars doing Dede's disgusting dirty work:

National Review's Guy Benson comments:

"Doug Hoffman: Running from himself" is the NRCC ad's tagline. Pitiful. In the NRCC's defense, however, it's still a bit better line than the Scozzafava camp's apparent new rallying cry: "Sprinting towards irrelevancy."

Gingrich and the GOP Establishment should be ashamed of themselves.

NY23: Ordinary Americans make miracles happen -- start doing what you can!

Letter to the editor, Watertown (N.Y.) Daily Times:

It has recently come to my attention that the Republican Party bosses met behind closed doors to select the candidate for the special election to fill the vacancy created by the appointment of John McHugh to the office of Army secretary.
They selected Dede Scozzafava, a liberal member of the state Assembly. She received the same Planned Parenthood award that was awarded to Hillary Clinton. With President Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pushing an anti-life agenda through the House, we do not need another pro-abortion politician in Washington.
Let's send a message: both the Democratic and Republican candidates are pro-abortion, but the Conservative candidate Doug Hoffman is pro-life. On Nov. 3, pull the lever for Doug Hoffman on the Conservative line and cast a vote for life.
Ann Dougherty

To repeat what I wrote in "Memo to the Grassroots":

One of the problems that hinders grassroots activists from making a difference is that they see problems so big that they think to themselves, "What's the point? I'm just one person. I'm not important. Why waste my time? There's nothing I can do anyway." . . .
The reason the GOP national leadership is so out of touch is because too many grassroots conservatives don't know how to fight back against the RINOs and sellouts and self-serving GOP headquarters staffers who collect fat paychecks for screwing up over and over again. . . .

If you haven't read that essay yet, you should do so now. Because if all you're going to do is sit around whining, "What can I do?" you're part of the problem, not part of the solution.

Don't become discouraged and start telling yourself that you can't do anything to fight back. Doing the little things you can do -- like sending short, clear, well-reasoned letters to the editor of your local paper -- is the key to successful grassroots activism. "Steady licks kill the Devil," they say.

Ms. Dougherty's letter boiled down to its essence a key point about the NY23 special election, namely that it was the "lords of the backroom" who picked Scozzafava as the GOP candidate. How many people in the 23rd District are really aware of that dirty little secret? With that one letter, then, Ms. Dougherty may have struck an important blow for Hoffman by helping inform local readers about the real story of this election, namely the battle between the grassroots and the out-of-touch Republican elite.

That's just one example of the difference the Ordinary American can make, if you'll ignore those pessimistic Eeyores who are always spreading negative gloom and doom by telling you there's no point trying, because you're certain to lose. If Doug Hoffman had listened to that kind of advice -- when he was growing up poor, pumping gas at age 14 to earn money -- he never would have become a successful businessman, and he sure wouldn't be running for Congress today.

The Doug Hoffman campaign collected $116,000 online in a single day last week. This morning, I spoke with a campaign source who told me that the overwhelming majority of those donations were in the $20-$50 range.

Think about that. Raising a six-figure sum -- in one day! -- with the average donor contributing less than $35. If you haven't kicked in yet, what are you waiting for? And if you've already given the Hoffman campaign $20 or $50, how about another $10 or $20 just to say, "Keep up the good work?"

HOFFMANIA: CATCH IT!

The Other McCain: Complete coverage of the NY23 special election

(Cross-posted at Hot Air Greenroom.)