October 29, 2009

by Michael Patrick Leahy

6:00 am EDT

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Despite her lack of support among the majority of the committeemen who attended the four regional meetings, Scozzafavva emerged from the July 22 meeting of the local county chairmen as the nominee of the party. In our earlier report, we documented that this outcome was the result of a breach of trust exercised by Clinton County Chairman Janet Duprey, who voted against the expressly stated views of her committeemen, who were strongly in favor of Paul Maroun, and voted for her friend and fellow liberal Scozzafava.

Each county was allocated a weighted vote based upon the percentage of the Republican population of the district residing in the county. After the first round of voting, Scozzafava had 49% of the vote, and the two conservatives--Maroun and Doheny--had 51% of the vote. 5% of Scozzafava's vote, however, was very soft, and could be expected to possibly switch in later rounds. Lewis County Chairman Sam Villanti, who is represented in the Assembly by Scozzafava, voted for her in the first round in recognition for her service to the county as a member of the Assembly, but was very uncomfortable with her liberal politics. Whether or not he would have switched to one of the conservative candidates in any future rounds of voting became a moot point when Scozzafava friend and liberal ally Duprey shockingly switched her vote at the start of the second ballot, giving Scozzafava a majority.

Blogger Dan Riehl, in his investigative report on the NY 23 nomination process yesterday, documents that the supposedly "open" nomination process was rigged from the beginning by the NRCC, at the behest of former Western New York Congressman and NRCC Chair Tom Reynolds, who wanted the nomination to go to Scozzafava.

Lingering bitterness among rank and file Republicans that the party bosses in Washington, New York City, and Albany, have once again subverted local wishes and forced an unappealing candidate upon them has fueled the movement of local Republicans into the camp of Conservative Congressional Candidate Doug Hoffman, who according two recent polls now leads the three way race (Democrat Bill Owens is in second).

Oblivious to the local anger his false assertions have created, and either unwilling or incapable of investigating the truth of his assertions, Gingrich continued to dig a deeper hole for himself yesterday when he said:

"Not surprisingly, the district Republicans picked Scozzafava as their top pick in all four meetings."

"Considering it was such a unanimous decision, the threshold for the national conservative establishment to try and override their decision ought to be very high."

The full story can be seen at Gingrich's web site here.

All sources interviewed for this story confirm that current Conservative nominee Doug Hoffman, who was one of the nine Republicans who sought the nomination, was never a serious challenger for the nomination. "He was a very strong conservative on the issues," said one local Republican insider, "but he wasn't a very polished candidate. Only Dede Scozzafava and conservatives Paul Mauroon and Matt Doheny were the prominent candidates for consideration."

Maroun, who would likely have been the nominee had the county chairmen listened to the wishes of the committee men who attended the four regional meetings, was disappointed at not receiving the nomination, but turned down Conservative Party Chairman Mike Long's invitation to consider running on the Conservative line against Scozzafava. Knowing that Maroun wasn't available, Long was receptive to Hoffman's later inquiry about securing the Conservative Party nomination for himself.

Maroun took his failure to receive the Republican nomination in stride, but was put on alert by yesterday's Blog report by Dan Riehl which pointed to Tom Reynolds, former chair of the NRCC, as the man who pulled the strings behind the scenes to orchestrate the nomination for Scozzafava.

In an exclusive interview with The TCOT Report, Maroun commented on Reynolds' demeanor towards him shortly after Scozzafava was nominated.

"I was at a meeting where many Republican State and local officials were in attendance a few weeks after Dede had won the nomination. Tom Reynolds was there, and he was kind of cool to me. I didn't understand it at the time, because I thought we had been friends. A Western New York County Chairman came up to me and said 'Paul, I was really sorry you didn't get the nomination in the 23rd. I thought you should have gotten it because you were the right person for the nod.' And I was appreciative of his saying that to me. But what struck me is that just as he said that I looked around for Tom, and he was just -- gone . He was no where to be found. I guess the conversation made him uncomfortable."

Politico recently described former Western New York Congressman Tom Reynold's role as NRCC Chairman:

Under his tenure as chairman, the GOP won a closely-contested California special election before losing 30 House seats in the 2006 Democratic landslide. And Democrats won seats in Kentucky and South Dakota in 2004, but lost additional seats in the November elections that year."

The rest of the story is here.

First elected to Congress in 1998, Reynolds shares Gingrich's "big tent" philosophy and proclivity for letting Washington pick local Congressional candidates. Though he resigned from Congress in 2008, under a cloud for his handling of the Mark Foley scandal, Reynolds is said to be still closely connected to staffers at the NRCC. Over the past few years, and especially recently, the "big tent" strategy has backfired for the NRCC. Earlier in the year, the handpicked NRCC candidate, Jim Tedisco, was defeated in a special election in NY 20. The more conservative and locally connected candidate, State Senator Betty Little, was passed over by the party bosses in favor of the ultimate loser Tedisco.

Conservatives around the country are baffled not only by Gingrich's odd decision to support Scozzafava, the ACORN supported RINO in the NY 23 special election, they are also troubled by his strident repetition of the false assertion that Scozzafava was locally selected and is locally supported.

"Why did Gingrich endorse her?", they wonder.

Perhaps more ominously for his rapidly fading hopes for a 2012 Presidential bid, conservatives are beginning to question his integrity. His constant repetition of the false "she's locally selected" mantra seems as off message as Scozzafava's numerous well documented campaign missteps.

Fulton County's Dugan articulated this sentiment very clearly, when he said in an exclusive TCOT Report interview recently:

"Either Newt Gingrich is lying, or someone misled him."

But how can "the smartest guy in the room", with a reputation as a scholar and seeker of truth have been so easily misled about a set of facts that could be discerned with half an hour's worth of phone calls?

Who initially told him the falsehood that Scozzafava was the unanimous choice of four regional meetings, does he still believe this, and if he does still believe this, why doesn't he take the half an hour to make the phone calls that will readily correct the facts and keep him from making these false assertions again and again?

The only person who can answer these questions is Speaker Gingrich himself. He will be performing a service for the Republican Party, the conservative movement, and his own political future if he does so forthrightly and immediately.

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Author's Note 2
I repeatedly sent direct messages on Twitter to Speaker Gingrich to inform him of the true facts of the tainted nature of the Scozzafava nomination between October 16 when he announced his endorsement and October 22 when the TCOT Report story broke. I have continued to send direct and public messages to the Speaker, with no response. In addition, I spoke directly with a key staffer at Gingrich's American Solutions, and the Speaker's long time Communications Director, Rick Tyler, advising both staff members of my interest in communicating my findings to the Speaker. The Speaker has never responded to any of my messages, nor has he returned my phone calls.



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