Huckabee: Mechanism, Not Ideas, Failed Conservatives in NY-23

November 04, 2009 6:30 PM

ABC News’ David Chalian Reports: A once and, perhaps, future Republican presidential candidate described the unfolding of events among the Republican and conservative ranks in NY-23 as nothing short of a “disaster.”

“It was just a disaster waiting to happen so I don’t think it was so much about the Democrat got elected, it was that the Republicans really fumbled the ball and the Democrats fell on it in the end zone,” said former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee on ABC News’ “Top Line.”

“His ideas weren’t wrong but the mechanism wasn’t the right mechanism,” Huckabee added when assessing Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman’s surprising loss in the upstate New York congressional district that has been represented by a Republican for more than 100 years.

The results of that House race provide the Republican Party with a very clear challenge.  The GOP can clearly benefit from the anti-incumbent, anti-government, anti-spending energy that is firing up the conservative grassroots.  But, as the process and results from NY-23 show, the Republican Party hasn’t yet mastered managing that energy into electoral gains.

Republicans are correct to point out that the process in the special House race was unique and that the Scozzafava/Hoffman divide is something that would normally have been worked out in a primary with plenty of time to work to reunite a divided party.

But the danger for anti-establishment Republican activists to break away in search of a third-party candidate is one that Gov. Huckabee warned against today.

“I’m not an independent third party guy.  You know, when people say let’s start a third party, we’ll show these Democrats and Republicans!  I’ll tell you what you’re gonna do, if you’re a conservative and you start and independent party that’s largely conservative what you will do is you will make sure the Democrat always wins.  And it’s just a disaster.  It’s not going to do anything. If you want to poke people in the eye great, go ahead. But if you want to win elections and change policy and make government more conservative that’s not the best way to go about it,” warned Huckabee.

Gov. Huckabee chose to abstain from choosing sides in the Hoffman vs. Scozzafava battle before Assemblywoman Scozzafava ended her candidacy.  Potential 2012 rivals of his including Sarah Palin, Tim Pawlenty, and Rick Santorum immersed themselves in the race by backing Hoffman and urging their supporters to do so too.

“I think as we look at it we’re going to say ‘it didn’t cause him to win, but I don’t think anyone can say it caused him to lose,’” Huckabee said of the high profile national Republican figures playing in the race.   “They had every right to get involved.  That was their prerogative to do so. They did so on philosophical grounds. I would simply come back to the point that this is a great reminder of why the candidate of the third party, the independent, the ‘go outside the lines guy’ sounds great, sounds as Sarah Palin might say ‘mavericky,’ but the results are not always very useful to us,” he added.

We also chatted with Gov. Huckabee all about his new book, “A Simple Christmas.”

Be sure to check out the entire interview HERE:

And don’t miss Air America Radio’s Ana Marie Cox’s take on Election 2009 and what she thinks President Obama could have done to fire up his Democratic base who came out in droves last year, but had a tough time showing any enthusiasm in yesterday’s election.