SALON

Tuesday, Nov 3, 2009 10:42 PM UTC

Dems trying to steal upstate N.Y. election? Not so much

Conservative candidate says the opposition is trying to take away the election, but key allegation is a hoax

By

Topics: 2009 Elections, War Room, Doug Hoffman,

Dems trying to steal upstate N.Y. election? Not so muchJeremy Kain

Doug Hoffman, the third-party candidate who managed to turn himself into the Republican establishment’s candidate for a special congressional election in New York, is in a very real sense the physical representation of the conservative mood right now.

Since it’s Election Day, conservatives are currently preoccupied with a familiar bogeyman, ACORN, and charges straight from last year of Democratic election fraud that somehow involves ACORN. (Sometimes there’s meat to these charges, even if it is misinterpreted, but lately, with the group having become public enemy number one on the right, the accusations are more nebulous and all-encompassing.) So it’s not surprising that Hoffman would take some time away from his regular Election Day schedule in order accuse his opponents of trying to take the election away from him and his supporters.

“There are reports that they’re bringing in the troops and they’re bringing in ACORN… We just had a report that one of our pollsters in Clinton County just had their tires slashed,” Hoffman told reporters Tuesday afternoon. “I think the Democrats are doing anything they possibly can to steal this election away from the 23rd district.”

Problem is, the tire-slashing incident, which had gotten conservatives on the Internet up in arms, appears not to have happened.

“This was not a tire slashing—this was some guy who drove over a bottle and cut his tire,” Plattsburgh City Police Capt. Michael Branch told the Wall Street Journal’s Anton Troianovski.

Alex Koppelman is a staff writer for Salon. More Alex Koppelman.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 37 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations