It seemed like lately, whenever Gary Bauer issued a press release, he made sure to note that he "was one of the first conservatives to endorse Doug Hoffman in his bid to take the New York house seat" and that his Campaign for Working Families had "committed tens of thousands of dollars in contributions and independent expenditures ... to promote conservative candidates and mobilize conservative voters."
Bauer was obviously counting on a Hoffman win to boost his own profile, but that didn't happen ... and Bauer has an explanation:
Hoffman ran a simple campaign with a single message, 'I will not be a vote for Nancy Pelosi.' With the Republican establishment against him, with the media against him, with the Democratic establishment against him, Hoffman pulled in 46 percent of the vote on a confusing ballot on which he was not listed at the GOP's candidate. If Hoffman's performance is combined with the numbers of failed Republican candidate Dede Scozzafava, who was listed as the GOP's candidate, he would have carried the day.
Hoffman would have won if a) he had been the Republican candidate because b) then the ballot wouldn't have been so confusing and thus c) the people who voted for the actual GOP candidate, Dede Scozzafava, would have voted for him.
In Bauer's fantasy world, "the fact that a district which went so solidly for Obama came so close to electing an unknown third party candidate shows the power of [conservative] ideas."
It should be pointed out that this congressional seat had been held by a Republican for the last 138 years.
It is now held by a Democrat.
And somehow that is a victory for conservatives.
