Why is he now not withdrawing from the race?
Stories--and speculation---about Conservative Doug Hoffman's decision to 'unconcede' in the 23rd congressional district special election. Hoffman was on Glenn Beck's radio show today, saying he knows it's a long shot that he'll win (he's 2,000+ votes behind, with 10,000 absentee ballots out) but, he says, he was part of the Lake Placid Olympics, so he believes in miracles. Hoffman says he'd need 56 to 65% of the absentee ballots, but that military tend to vote conservative, and his advertising had already started when the absentee ballots were mailed out.
Blog sites were full of reaction to the announcement today, including speculation on whether, if Hoffman does win, Congressman Bill Owens' vote for healthcare reform would be invalidated. Hoffman's own website, which changed later in the day, said he was still in the race.
Cazenovia College history professor Bob Greene says the two issues are separate, that because he was sworn in, Owens was the 23rd's representative at the time of the vote, and efforts to make his vote void would be decided in the courts, probably all the way up to the US Supreme Court. Greene also says you cannot 'unconcede'--that what actually will decide this all, is when the State Board of Elections certifies the race, after the eleven counties involved finish their vote tallies. They were counting today, and, at least in Oswego County, no candidates' representatives were watching, which Greene says is also telling about the strategy on unconceding. Greene also says it was Hoffman's mistake to concede on election night, that if he had not, it's not clear that Owens would have been sworn in before Election Board certification.
Greene says today's actions by Hoffman are another effort to remind how close the race was, and is part of the strategy to position him for the next election in that district, next year.
