Glenn and Doug's Excellent Adventure

Doug Hoffman: "I take it back"

Well, frumps, it’s not often that we get a chance to sit in on a live Glenn Beck mentoring session but, thanks to the folks at Think Progress, we have a rare opportunity to do just that. The NY-23 special election may be over, but Glenn Beck has made a decision to stand by his man, Doug Hoffman. Obviously, Sarahpalooza took her lumps in New York and got out of town. She headed back into the fast lane and sped off to bigger and better media ops. But, true to his motto, “No Loser Left Behind,” Glenn Beck is not yet ready to concede the NY-23 special election.

In a live radio broadcast, yesterday, Beck urged his 912 disciple, Doug Hoffman, to “un-concede” the race in which Hoffman & Co worked overtime to deliver a 100 year-old Republican House seat to Democrat Bill Owens. Owens graciously accepted the seat and wasted no time getting himself to the Capitol to be sworn in and cast his very first Congressional vote, which, as luck would have it, was for the Affordable Health Care for America bill. Way to make history, Bill!

Here’s a clip of the magic moment in which Beck gently steers Candidate Hoffman toward the path of righteousness:

Beck’s sage advice to Hoffman is based, of course, on news that came out of NY-23 a week after the election, during standard re-canvassing, stating that a few “errors” might have been made in tallying the votes. Re-canvassing the votes showed Owens’ lead had narrowed to 3,026 votes, with about 5,800 absentee ballots received so far that have yet to be counted. The final outcome rests on uncounted absentee ballots, and more than 10,000 were sent out. Dede Scozzafava’s name was still on the absentee ballots that went out, making it a three-way-race, which could slightly favor Hoffman.

The Hoffman campaign conceded a few hours after poll-closing when it was learned that Hoffman had only a narrow edge in Oswego County – considered the Conservative candidate’s base – and after campaign workers learned Owens led by 5,335 votes with 93 percent of the returns in.

Hoffman spokesman Rob Ryan said:

“On election night we were kind of stunned – and that’s kind of why we conceded – how poorly we did in Oswego. Then we found out a few days later that the numbers were narrowing because of reporting problems.”

The Syracuse Post-Standard was first to report that problems in some counties resulted in under-reporting of votes for Hoffman on election night, Nov. 3.

John Conklin, a spokesman for the state Board of Elections said:

“Mistakes are found, somebody put the wrong number in a column, or numbers are transposed. … It’s not uncommon. It’s still unlikely that Hoffman could come back; he would need to win roughly 75 percent of the 5,800 absentee ballots that have been returned.”

The counties have 15 days after the election to complete re-canvassing and they don’t have to forward the results to the state until Nov. 28.

Shripal Shah, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee stated that:

“Doug Hoffman conceded, knowing that there was no way he could take the lead in the final tally, and that’s exactly why the election results were not contested.”

So, to summarize, we have an election in which a “carpetbagger” candidate from out of the district he was running in, who amply demonstrated to the media that he hadn’t a clue what the local issues are, all the while doing a little soft-shoe further to the right. He pledges to the 912 Project and, lo and behold, suddenly the RNC and a host of national GOP names are endorsing the Barney Fife of New York politics.

Hoffman, and his campaign handlers, evidently, are such newbies that they conceded, possibly early but probably not unwisely, and didn’t contest the vote. Everyone moves on, but, during the mopping up, the State Board of Elections announces that the numbers weren’t exactly right on election night but that all indications are that the actual outcome probably won’t change.

Hold Everything

Even Hoffman’s campaign manager acknowledged that Hoffman’s chances of pulling off a come-from-behind victory are still remote, but he also said the campaign is “looking at its legal options:”

“We’re basically watching and waiting. We’ve been looking very closely at the re-canvass. We’re going to see how this week shapes up, and then we’re going to determine what to do.”

At that point a few party operatives and pundits, sensing blood in the water, started saying things like:

“The county Boards of Election are still re-canvassing votes and it could be the end of November before a final count is certified. If the count overturns the election, Owens could be removed from office.”

In a perfect world that might be true but it’s not a perfect world, in fact it’s a quite imperfect world where short-sighted, manipulative politicians are frequently “hoist with [their] own petards.” And that kind of justice is always delicious . . .

What’s Good For the GOP is Good for the Democrats

Brad Friedman, of The BRAD BLOG, offered up a great article a few days ago, describing some precedent-setting machinations that the GOP pulled off following a 2006 special election for a California seat. The situation is very similar to the NY-23 election except that Republicans held the House majority at that time and the voting irregularities in the California special election were pretty spectacular.

In the California election of 2006, serious questions arose about the legality of the electronic voting machines used and those questions were upheld by State and Federal officials. Nevertheless, with 50,000 votes still uncounted, the Republican-run CA Secretary of State’s office rushed a FAX “certification” to Congress attesting that there were no challenges to the election. Even though there were many challenges publicized regarding the unofficial results and the CA electorate, according to State law, have several days after the official results to file a contest.

Brad Friedman tots up the similarities between the 2006 and 2009 special elections:

“Then, as now, the candidate believed to be the “loser” — Busby in that case, Hoffman in this one — had conceded before all the votes had been counted. Then, as now, the state sent notice to the U.S. House Clerk based on unofficial election results before all votes were counted, attesting to the name of the “winner” and that the race had not been contested. Then, as now, the “winning” candidate — Republican Bilbray in that case, Democrat Owens in this one — was quickly shuttled to D.C. to be sworn in by the Speaker of the House. Back then it was Republican Dennis Hastert. This time it’s Democrat Nancy Pelosi. Owens vote in favor of the House Democrats’ Health Care legislation proved vital on Saturday, following his swearing-in just one day earlier.”

But, as Friedman points out:

“The bad news, however, for now-hopeful Republicans/Conservatives is that when the results of the Busby/Bilbray race were contested by a California voter, the Republican-leadership of the U.S. House Administration Committee sent a letter [PDF] to the CA judge in the case, arguing that neither CA voters nor the state courts had jurisdiction to contest the election any longer, once the candidate had already been sworn into the U.S. House.”

“On the House Republicans’ assertion of the Constitutional argument that it was the Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives — not the CA courts and not the voters in the state — who had jurisdiction over the results of the election at that point, the judge accepted the argument and dismissed the case. Democracy was denied. The argument withstood appeal to a higher court, essentially, as time wore on and the court found the complaint to be moot.”

“Republicans were successful in shutting down any and all state challenges and contests to that election — simply through a speedy swearing-in ceremony. An appeal to Congress itself, under the FCEA would have been decided by the Republican majority, just as such a contest today would be decided by the Democrats who now enjoy the majority.”

Faced with these actual facts, I wouldn’t be surprised if Glenn Beck comes up with some legal-sounding challenge put together by an anonymous faculty member from his famous University of I Don’t Remember the Name to encourage the hapless Hoffman to forge on with his “un-concession.” But, you know what, Doug? Given your lack of experience, your obvious preference for ideology over issues and your catastrophically poor choice in mentors, I think letting your concession stand might be the greatest contribution that you can make to Democracy and the good people of NY-23.

Technorati Tags: Glenn Beck, Doug Hoffman, Ny-23, special election, Bill Owens, Dede Scozzafava, un-concede, recanvass, Brad Friedman, The BRAD BLOG, Sarah Palin