Former Alaska GOP Gov. Sarah Palin on Thursday endorsed Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman over Dede Scozzafava, the Republican Party's choice, in the special election for New York’s 23rd congressional district."The people of the 23rd Congressional District of New York are ready to shake things up, and Doug Hoffman is coming on strong as Election Day approaches! He needs our help now," Palin wrote in a statement that will be posted on her Facebook page late Thursday.
Palin is not only vocally throwing her weight behind the right-wing Hoffman, she is talking with her bankbook. She is planning to have her political action committee, SarahPAC, max out to Hoffman's campaign (which has now raised over $300K in his bid for Congress, and appears to be outraising Scozzafava, according to recent FEC 48-hour reports).
In her endorsement, Palin minces few words in ripping into the Republican Party, yet another sign that the party is on the verge of a fratricidal bloodletting:
Political parties must stand for something. When Republicans were in the wilderness in the late 1970s, Ronald Reagan knew that the doctrine of ‘blurring the lines’ between parties was not an appropriate way to win elections," she added, launching into an attack of the Republican Party.
"Unfortunately, the Republican Party today has decided to choose a candidate that more than blurs the lines, and there is no real difference between the Democrat and the Republican in this race. This is why Doug Hoffman is running on the Conservative Party's ticket," she wrote. "Republicans and conservatives around the country are sending an important message to the Republican establishment in their outstanding grassroots support for Doug Hoffman: no more politics as usual."
Palin's decision to throw her lot in with the third-party insurgent candidate is the second notable Republican defection in as many days for Scozzafava, who has struggled almost since the moment that district Republicans decided to award their party nomination to her.
On Wednesday, it was one of the other luminaries in the GOP's female Axis of Wingnuttery--the one and only Michele Bachmann, who decided to turn her back on the Republican Party:
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) appeared yesterday on Laura Ingraham's radio show -- and called upon listeners to support Doug Hoffman, the Conservative Party candidate in the NY-23 special election, instead of the moderate Republican nominee Dede Scozzafava.
Bachmann quite correctly said the race is a "mess," and said that she's read that the Republican candidate is now in third place, with the Democrat in first place and Hoffman as the real chance to keep the seat in the GOP column.
In her rationale for supporting Hoffman, Bachmann appears to be talking out of school a bit. There are absolutely no public polls that have Hoffman leading Scozzafava. The assumption, therefore, is that Bachmann is privy to some private polling that has Hoffman ahead of Scozzafava.
Daily Kos will be releasing our numbers from the New York 23rd district in the morning. Without divulging too much information, it is fair to presume that Scozzafava's streak of bad news days is unlikely to be stopped on Friday.