NY-23 – Time for Liberal Bloggers to Get a New Meme

One of the worst things about either side of the blogosphere is the echo chamber effect.  Both sides are guilty of it.  If some 'leader' of either side notices something or says something they believe is clever, it will be parroted all throughout cyberspace.

It gets old, quick in my opinion.

So please, semi-semi-intelligent liberal bloggers who think they know a thing or twelve about polling, the candidates, the issues, and God knows what else up in New York-23, could you please stop.  The facts on the ground are starting to make you look foolish.

A poll released today by the Club for Growth shows Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman surging into the lead in the special election in New York's 23rd congressional district to replace John McHugh, the former congressman who recently became Secretary of the Army.

The poll of 300 likely voters, conducted October 24-25, 2009, shows Conservative Doug Hoffman at 31.3%, Democrat Bill Owens at 27.0%, Republican Dede Scozzafava at 19.7%, and 22% undecided. The poll's margin of error is +/- 5.66%. No information was provided about any of the candidates prior to the ballot question.

This is the third poll done for the Club for Growth in the NY-23 special election, and Doug Hoffman is the only candidate to show an increase in his support levels in each successive poll. The momentum in the race is clearly with Hoffman.

"Hoffman now has a wide lead among both Republicans and Independents, while Owens has a wide lead among Democrats. Dede Scozzafava's support continues to collapse, making this essentially a two-candidate race between Hoffman and Owens in the final week," concluded Basswood Research's pollster Jon Lerner, who conducted the poll for the Club.

Admittedly, it's a poll conducted and paid for by the Club for Growth which I believe has endorsed Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman, but it will cause other pollsters to take another last look at the race.  I've already heard from some friends who work in the polling industry (Yes, politics has created such a beast) that Public Policy Polling -- a Democratic firm out of North Carolina -- was going to poll one last time.

One thing is certain with NY-23, the NRCC needs to re-access its strategy when it comes to special elections.  Irregardless of what happens on November 3rd, they're about to go 0 for 5 since the start of the cycle.