This is kind of a New York news thing, so I thought I would give a little background about the Republican in-fighting.
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First, it is a pretty Republican district (it hasn't gone Democratic since the civil war I think they said). The Republican that used to represent this district was chosen by Obama to be Secretary of the Army. It was a safe Republican district and the Republicans picked the current Representative's protege to run in the special election.
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But outside money and influence (the Club for Growth from Arkansas, Glen Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Fred Thompson) poured in for Doug Hoffman from the Conservative Party. IN New York, the Conservative party usually endorses the Republican candidate. After a lot of advertising against the (female) republican, Hoffman pulled ahead in polling (the Democrat has hung at 30% the whole time - about how many Democrats are in the district).
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Once he pulled ahead, Sarah Palin and then Tim Pawlty (the Republican Gov. of Minnesota who wants to run for President in 2012) jumped loudly on the Hoffman bandwagon. Calling the Republican (Dede Scozzafava ) a Republican In Name Only (RINO) because she is pro-choice and pro-LBGT rights ; although all of her other credentials are staunchly Republican.
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So rather than split the vote and let the Democrat win, Ms. Scozzafava just pulled out. Of course, rather than applauding her decision to quit to avoid a Democratic win, the outside forces are crowing about pushing out a moderate Republican.
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Of course, you wouldn't know if from all the outside money ads, but Doug Hoffman is not a resident of the district at all (he currently lives outside the district in Lake Placid NY - which is legal in New York although not California). And, despite harping on Ms. Scozzafava for supporting stimulus funds as wasteful, his companies have taken $470,000+ of Obama Stimulus funds.
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It is such a Republican district AND there is so much outside conservative money that Hoffman should win - but it is a chilling win to other moderate Republicans in the Northeast who will have to compete in real elections where millions of dollars of outside money can't support every candidate.
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One other thing, the Wikipedia entry is being used by both sides at different times and so should be taken with a huge grain of salt. For example, the last sentence says "If Hoffman wins this will be one of the first time in modern history that a third party candidate will be in congress." When, in fact, Vermont has had a socialist in the senate now for over 10 years and multiple Green Party members have represented Northern Californian SFO/Oakland/Berkeley districts.