The GOP's Self-Created Mess in New York

The Wall Street Journal takes note of the incredibly bad candidate the GOP has put up for an open House seat in New York:

Republicans are telling themselves that a political wave is building that could carry them to big election gains next year. Judging by their performance so far in a special election in New York, however, they deserve to wander in the minority for another generation or two.

The November 2 contest will replace nine-term Republican John McHugh, who resigned to become Secretary of the Army. President Obama carried the district along the Canadian border with 52%, but George W. Bush carried it twice and Republicans outnumber Democrats by 45,000 or so. With voters alarmed about the economy and runaway spending, this ought to be an easy GOP retention.

Yet party bosses have managed to nominate a rare Republican who could lose: Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava, whose liberal record has caused voters to flee to Doug Hoffman, a business executive who is running on the Conservative line. Mr. Hoffman has more than 20% support in the latest poll, which is only a few points behind Ms. Scozzafava, who is only a little behind Democratic lawyer Bill Owens.

Democrats want to portray this race as a familiar moderate-conservative GOP split, but the real issue is why Ms. Scozzafava is a Republican at all. She has voted for so many tax increases that the Democrat is attacking her as a tax raiser. She supported the Obama stimulus, and she favors "card check" to make union organizing easier, or at least she did until a recent flip-flop.She has run more than once on the line of the Working Families Party, which is aligned with Acorn. Her voting record in Albany puts her to the left of nearly half of the Democrats in the assembly. She also favors gay marriage, which is to the left of Mr. Obama.

GOP county chairmen pushed Ms. Scozzafava for the job in July at the behest of GOP state party chairman Joe Mondello, who has since (and blessedly) stepped down. Mr. Mondello also hand-picked loser James Tedisco in another special Congressional election earlier this year. Our sources tell us the backroom boys picked Ms. Scozzafava because she is a woman with high name recognition who could appeal to Democrats. Too bad she doesn't appeal to Republicans.

One lesson of the Democratic gains in Congress in 2006 and 2008 is that a party needs to nominate candidates who fit their districts. Conservative stands won't always fit in the Northeast the way they might in the South. Single-issue litmus tests can be self-defeating.

But GOP candidates ought to at least agree on some core principles, such as limited government and limits on the power of unions that have done so much to bust New York's budget and drive jobs from the state. Some Republicans think Ms. Scozzafava might even switch parties if she wins and faces the prospect of a tough GOP primary next year.

All of which suggests that the best result might be for Mr. Hoffman—who promises to caucus with Republicans—to emerge as the main opponent to the Democrat. A divided GOP vote could elect the Democrat and add to their majority. But Mr. Hoffman might even win if enough voters abandon Ms. Scozzafava. James Buckley won a Senate seat as the Conservative candidate in New York in 1970 against a pair of major-party liberals.

Above all, a defeat would teach Republicans that running candidates who believe in nothing will keep them in the minority for years to come.

This is some polling that now shows Scozzafava in 3rd place behind the Democrat and Hoffman. If Republicans in that district were smart they'd throw their support to Hoffman and leave Scozzafava out of it.