{"id":1208,"date":"2009-10-29T18:47:00","date_gmt":"2009-10-29T22:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2009\/10\/29\/republican-leaders-shift-toward-hoffman\/"},"modified":"2009-10-29T18:47:00","modified_gmt":"2009-10-29T22:47:00","slug":"republican-leaders-shift-toward-hoffman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2009\/10\/29\/republican-leaders-shift-toward-hoffman\/","title":{"rendered":"Republican leaders shift toward Hoffman"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In a sign that Dede Scozzafava&#8217;s sagging numbers are draining her support in Washington, DC, top GOP leaders have begun extending the welcome mat to third-party Conservative Doug Hoffman.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><a href=\"http:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/stories\/1009\/28899.html\">Politico reported today<\/a> that NRCC chairman Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Tx) had extended an invitation to Hoffman to join the GOP caucus, should he prevail next Tuesday.<\/div>\n<div><span class=\"Apple-style-span\"><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0px;margin-right: 0px;margin-bottom: 1.2857em;margin-left: 0px;padding-top: 0px;padding-right: 0px;padding-bottom: 0px;padding-left: 0px;border-top-width: 0px;border-right-width: 0px;border-bottom-width: 0px;border-left-width: 0px;border-style: initial;border-color: initial;font-size: 13px;vertical-align: baseline;background-color: transparent;line-height: 1.2857em\">\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0px;margin-right: 0px;margin-bottom: 1.2857em;margin-left: 0px;padding-top: 0px;padding-right: 0px;padding-bottom: 0px;padding-left: 0px;border-top-width: 0px;border-right-width: 0px;border-bottom-width: 0px;border-left-width: 0px;border-style: initial;border-color: initial;font-size: 13px;vertical-align: baseline;background-color: transparent;line-height: 1.2857em\">\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0px;margin-right: 0px;margin-bottom: 1.2857em;margin-left: 0px;padding-top: 0px;padding-right: 0px;padding-bottom: 0px;padding-left: 0px;border-top-width: 0px;border-right-width: 0px;border-bottom-width: 0px;border-left-width: 0px;border-style: initial;border-color: initial;font-size: 13px;vertical-align: baseline;background-color: transparent;line-height: 1.2857em\">\u201cHe would be very welcome, with open arms,\u201d Sessions told POLITICO in an interview off the House floor&#8230;<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0px;margin-right: 0px;margin-bottom: 1.2857em;margin-left: 0px;padding-top: 0px;padding-right: 0px;padding-bottom: 0px;padding-left: 0px;border-top-width: 0px;border-right-width: 0px;border-bottom-width: 0px;border-left-width: 0px;border-style: initial;border-color: initial;font-size: 13px;vertical-align: baseline;background-color: transparent;line-height: 1.2857em\">On Thursday afternoon, Sessions appeared to tacitly acknowledge that Hoffman may represent the GOP\u2019s best chance to keep the Republican-held seat from being picked up by a Democrat.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0px;margin-right: 0px;margin-bottom: 1.2857em;margin-left: 0px;padding-top: 0px;padding-right: 0px;padding-bottom: 0px;padding-left: 0px;border-top-width: 0px;border-right-width: 0px;border-bottom-width: 0px;border-left-width: 0px;border-style: initial;border-color: initial;font-size: 13px;vertical-align: baseline;background-color: transparent;line-height: 1.2857em\">\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0px;margin-right: 0px;margin-bottom: 1.2857em;margin-left: 0px;padding-top: 0px;padding-right: 0px;padding-bottom: 0px;padding-left: 0px;border-top-width: 0px;border-right-width: 0px;border-bottom-width: 0px;border-left-width: 0px;border-style: initial;border-color: initial;font-size: 13px;vertical-align: baseline;background-color: transparent;line-height: 1.2857em\">Until today, Republicans had continued to level fire at Hoffman, as well as Democrat Bill Owens, while funneling thousands of dollars to Scozzafava&#8217;s underfunded campaign.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0px;margin-right: 0px;margin-bottom: 1.2857em;margin-left: 0px;padding-top: 0px;padding-right: 0px;padding-bottom: 0px;padding-left: 0px;border-top-width: 0px;border-right-width: 0px;border-bottom-width: 0px;border-left-width: 0px;border-style: initial;border-color: initial;font-size: 13px;vertical-align: baseline;background-color: transparent;line-height: 1.2857em\">But rank-and-file House members within the GOP declined to share their war chests with her.  With four full campaign days ahead, and very little cash left to spend, Scozzafava&#8217;s position looks increasingly lonely.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0px;margin-right: 0px;margin-bottom: 1.2857em;margin-left: 0px;padding-top: 0px;padding-right: 0px;padding-bottom: 0px;padding-left: 0px;border-top-width: 0px;border-right-width: 0px;border-bottom-width: 0px;border-left-width: 0px;border-style: initial;border-color: initial;font-size: 13px;vertical-align: baseline;background-color: transparent;line-height: 1.2857em\">Today&#8217;s statement from Sessions could also further endanger Democrat Bill Owens, who appears to need a divided Republican vote to prevail.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0px;margin-right: 0px;margin-bottom: 1.2857em;margin-left: 0px;padding-top: 0px;padding-right: 0px;padding-bottom: 0px;padding-left: 0px;border-top-width: 0px;border-right-width: 0px;border-bottom-width: 0px;border-left-width: 0px;border-style: initial;border-color: initial;font-size: 13px;vertical-align: baseline;background-color: transparent;line-height: 1.2857em\">If Hoffman can consolidate center-right voters in the coming days, his remarkable surge could put him over the top.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0px;margin-right: 0px;margin-bottom: 1.2857em;margin-left: 0px;padding-top: 0px;padding-right: 0px;padding-bottom: 0px;padding-left: 0px;border-top-width: 0px;border-right-width: 0px;border-bottom-width: 0px;border-left-width: 0px;border-style: initial;border-color: initial;font-size: 13px;vertical-align: baseline;background-color: transparent;line-height: 1.2857em\">-Brian Mann, NCPR<\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a sign that Dede Scozzafava&#8217;s sagging numbers are draining her support in Washington, DC, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[874],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1208"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1208\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}