Who Lied to Newt Gingrich? "Newt Gingrich is either lying, or he's being misled by someone." Bob Dugan, current Fulton County, New York Republican Committee Man.
Until he resigned last week in protest of the tainted process by which liberal Dede Scozzafava secured the Republican nomination for Congress in New York's 23rd Congressional District,
Mr. Dugan was the Vice Chairman of the Fulton County, New York Republican Committee
Newt Gingrich's FALSE ASSERTION on how Dede Scozzafava secured the Republican nomination: “There were four Republican meetings. In all four meetings, State Representative Dede Scozzafava came in first.”
(Source: Transcript of Fox TV's On the Record with Greta Van Susteren, Monday, October 26, 2009
The FACTS as verified by numerous interviews with participants in the four candidate forums: In three of the four Republican meetings, the majority of those attending supported conservative candidates, not Dede Scozzafava.
UPDATE:
October 29, 2009
6:30 PM EDT
Newt Gingrich has just updated his website. The false assertion he made on Greta on Monday evening that “There were four Republican meetings. In all four meetings, State Representative Dede Scozzafava came in first.” has been removed from his site.
The language of the website now reads:
There were four local GOP meetings in the 23rd district to get feedback on
who the party would nominate and ultimately a vote by the eleven county
chairs. Dede Scozzafava is an elected state representative from the largest
county in the district who understands local issues. Doug Hoffman, who does
not live in the district, did not receive a single vote. Scozzafava was
ultimately the unanimous choice of the party chairs.*
Considering it was a unanimous decision, the threshold for the national
conservative establishment to try and override their decision ought to be
very high.
* A previous version of this statement contained a description of the
nomination process that was incorrect. We regret the error."
You can read the full corrected story on Newt's web site here:
ORIGINAL STORY
October 29, 2009
by Michael Patrick Leahy
6:00 am EDT
On Greta Van Susteren’s Fox TV Show On the Record this past Monday, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich justified his endorsement of the very liberal
Republican Dede Scozzafava in the NY 23rd Congressional District special election to be held next Tuesday by boldly asserting that:
"Well, I just find it fascinating that my many friends who claim to be against Washington having too much power, they claim to be in favor of the 10th
Amendment giving states back their rights, they claim to favor local control and local authority, now they suddenly get local control and local authority in
upstate New York, they don't like the outcome.
There were four Republican meetings. In all four meetings, State Representative Dede Scozzafava came in first"
You can watch the full video of this interview here:
Fulton County Committee member Bob Dugan missed the Van Susteren announcement, but watched a reprieve of Gingrich's performance the next morning on Fox and Friends.
"I jumped out of my chair," said Dugan, "and started looking for the Fox and Friends phone number. I wanted to call them right then to let them know that what Newt had just said wasn't true."
Dugan and many of the local Republican County Committeemen and rank and file were not happy with the tainted process by which the National Republican Congressional Committee forced the liberal Scozzafava upon this largely conservative district, as was first documented by The TCOT Report. Yesterday, the TCOT Report story on the tainted nomination process of Scozzafava was confirmed in its entirety in a blog post by Dan Riehl.
Scozzafava was nominated on July 22 at a meeting of the eleven county chairmen. Prior to this meeting, a series of four regional meetings were held throughout
the district, at which time nine candidates were given a chance to appear in front of a select group of Republican committeemen and State Party officials.
Many conservative Republicans in the 23rd Congressional District were insulted by the Speaker's blatant mischaracterization that Scozzafava was the "unanimous" choice of the four regional meetings that preceeded the nominee selection meeting held on July 22. Contrary to the Speaker's assertions,
Scozzafava received a majority of the support in only one of these four meetings. Two of the meetings resulted in support for conservative candidate Paul
Maroun, and one resulted in support of conservative candidate Matt Doheny.
From the time she first announced her candidacy for the open Congressional seat, Scozzafava has had very little support from county committee members and rank and file Republicans in the majority of the counties in her district.
Her current standing in Fulton County, always low, has now hit rock bottom.
In an exclusive interview with the TCOT Report last night, we asked Fulton County, New York Republican County Chairman Susan McNeil this point blank question:
"Is there any support at all for Dede Scozzafava in Fulton County?"
Chairman McNeil responded in a very clear and measured tone:
"In all of the calls I have received [from Fulton County Republicans] there is no support for Dede"
The four candidate forum meetings where Scozzafava's local weaknesses were first revealed were held in July in Plattsburgh (for Essex, Clinton, and Franklin Counties), Speculator (for Fulton and Hamilton Counties), Sylvan Beach
(for Oswego, Oneida, and Madison Counties), and Gouverneur (for Lewis, Jefferson, and St. Lawrence Counties). It's unclear if actual votes of those present
were taken in all four regional meetings. What we've confirmed is that a vote was taken in the Plattsburgh forum from the Clinton County committeemen, and
the results support conservative Republican Paul Maroun, not liberal Dede Scozzafava
At Meeting #1 in Plattsburgh, all three counties in attendance (Clinton, Franklin, and Essex) supported the conservative Paul Maroun.
In Plattsburgh, Clinton County Chairman Janet Duprey has publicly acknowledged that the majority of the attendees from Clinton County (the largest of the
three) were for Paul Maroun, a Franklin County legislator.
Maroun himself says that 90% of the committeemen attending that regional meeting from all three counties were for him. Maroun’s recollections were supported
by the behavior of the county chairmen from the other two counties – Franklin County’s chairman Jim Ellis cast his first round vote for Maroun, as did Essex
County Chairman Ron Jackson.
At Meeting #2 in Speculator, both counties in attendance (Fulton and Hamilton) supported the conservative Paul Maroun.
Chairman McNeil has publicly stated previously that not many members of the Fulton County Republican Party ever wanted Dede as a nominee. On a weighted basis, Fulton County had over 2/3 of the committeemen at
the Speculator meeting, and they were strongly in favor of Paul Maroun. And when the county chairmen met on July 22, McNeil
stuck with Paul Maroun from the first ballot to the end.
Hamilton County Chairman William Farber, also cast his first ballot vote for Conservative Paul Maroun, indicating that the vast majority of attendees at the
Speculator regional meeting did not support Scozzafava, and in fact were opposed to her.
At Meeting #3 in Sylvan Beach, two counties in attendance (Oswego and Oneida) supported the conservative Matt Doheny, and one county (Madison) leaned to Scozzafava.
Madison County Chairman Therese Dancks, who cast her first ballot vote for Scozzafava, failed to attend the Sylvan Beach meeting. Two county chairmen who
did attend the event—George Williams of Oswego County, and George Joseph of Oneida County (which together accounted for over 60% of the Republican vote in
these three counties)—cast their first ballots for local conservative candidate Matt Doheny. Former Madison County chairman Mike St. Leger was in attendance at the Sylvan Beach meeting, and has been given the opportunity to make any corrections to this report or any other prior report made on the nomination process. To date, he has not made a single correction.
Insider sources in Madison County report that rank and file Republicans there are solidly behind Hoffman, rather than Scozzafava, and that Dancks’ support
for Scozzafava was based more on her personal friendship and sharing of political opinions on liberal social issues rather than sentiment within the county.
In an earlier interview with the TCOT Report, Dancks’ stated that she felt there was support in Madison County for Scozzafava because she had family ties
there.
At Meeting #4 in Gouverneur, two counties in attendance (St. Lawrence and Jefferson) supported the liberal Dede Scozzafava, and one county (Lewis) leaned to Scozzafava, but with misgivings.
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Author's Note 1
I was born in Oswego County, attended elementary school in Clinton County, and attended junior high school in Madison County.
