Pro-life candidates (not all of them Tea Partiers) won big Tuesday night in GOP primaries, putting them in competitive or underdog races against pro-abortion challengers in the upcoming November 2 election especially in New York. Here is a look at some of the political landscape for the pro-life movement in the Empire State.
Senate Races: Pro-life Carl Paladino, who won the GOP nomination for New York governor, was not the only Tea Party win to put a pro-life candidate on the state ballot. Pro-life and Tea Party-backed senate candidate Joe DioGuardi beat out his fiscal conservative pro-abortion challengers David Malpass and Bruce Blakeman with 41.6 percent percent of the vote. Malpass came in second with 37.6 percent, followed by Blakeman at 20.7 percent.
DioGuardi served as a GOP Congressional representative from 1985-1988 and has been a certified public accountant for 22 years. DioGuardi also had greater name recognition owing to his daughter Kara being a former judge on the popular TV talent show, American Idol. DioGuardi also received an enthusiastic endorsement from New York State Right to Life for his campaign.
His primary challenger, David Malpass, had the star-power of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani behind him, who is also pro-abortion. Malpass, however, tried to focus on the economic problems of the state in the campaign, touting his credentials as an economist. Questions on social issues, such as abortion, nevertheless came up.
Blakeman, the first to enter the race, also tried to dodge the abortion question, but finally told the New York Daily News, "I have an explanation, but I believe it's a woman's right to choose."
DioGuardio will go on to challenge U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who filled the seat after President Barack Obama appointed Hillary Clinton as his Secretary of State.
Also: Less vulnerable than Gillibrand is entrenched incumbent pro-abortion U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, a Democrat, who is also running for re-election this year, and has a massive $23 million war chest. Jay Townsend won the GOP primary for that Senate race over Gary Berntsen, 55 percent to 45 percent. Both candidates are pro-life and said they wanted Roe v. Wade overturned in debates. Townsend's war chest is pitifully small compared with Schumer: just under $11,000 to take down a sitting pro-abortion Senator. Nevertheless, the communications consultant told the Associated Press he was not fazed, and the election would be a "a referendum on his record…not his war chest."
Toss-Up in NY-23: So far no official winner yet in this year's GOP primary race for NY-23, which captured national interest last year as a slew of Tea Party insurgents, fiscal conservative groups, and pro-life and pro-family PACs rallied to Conservative party candidate Doug Hoffman in the special election. In last year's race Hoffman effectively snatched GOP support from pro-abortion, pro-same-sex "marriage," non-conservative Dede Scozzafava, who was nominated by party bosses. Yet Scozzafava stayed on the GOP ballot after suspending her candidacy and endorsed Democrat Bill Owens, who snatched the congressional seat from Hoffman by several thousand votes.
This time around, the pro-life Hoffman is running as a GOP candidate and is contending with Matt Doheny, who has some anti-abortion positions, but believes abortion should remain legal in the first trimester of a woman's pregnancy. However, North Country Radio reports that Doheny maintained he would be an effective pro-life vote in Congress, saying he is "against federal funding for abortions," partial-birth abortion, and will vote "the way [the North Country's right-to-life community] want[s] at the end of the day."
By contrast, sitting U.S. Rep. Bill Owens, a Democrat, is solidly pro-abortion.
Doheny so far is ahead by 612 votes, but more than 2000 absentee ballots still need to be counted. It is possible that a recanvassing effort of the district could help Hoffman (last year's recanvassing gained Hoffman some uncounted votes). Overall, he will need to have a 2 – 1 edge in the absentee ballot count to pull off a win, making it likely that Doheny will be the ultimate winner.
Unlike last time, Hoffman did not have big national pro-life, conservative groups injecting themselves into the race – the main difference being that last year the national health care reform debate was in the media spotlight, and Republicans were looking for every vote they could get.
This time, Tea Party leaders are poised to buck Hoffman for Doheny if he loses the primary. The Syracuse Post Standard reports that Mark Barie, chairman of the Upstate New York Tea Party (UNYTEA), had harsh words for the way Hoffman conducted his campaign, saying it was "unorganized" and "failed to take advantage of Doug's tremendous popularity."
Hoffman will be still running on the Conservative party ballot, and plans to continue campaigning even if he loses the primary. But Barie told North Country Radio that UNYTEA will "throw Doug Hoffman under the bus" if Hoffman's candidacy would result in a win for Owens, which would further entrench the incumbent pro-abortion Democrat in a historically GOP district.
Contact: Peter J. Smith
Source: LifeSiteNews.comDate Published: September 16, 2010
