Freedom Line Blog

For those wanting to impress others at your election returns party tonight (and if you’re reading this blog, you’ve at least thought about it), here’s the link to the New York Conservative Party website.

And below is a link to short video description of its history by the incomparable Rick Brookhiser of National Review:

Rick Brookhiser on the New York Conservative Party

Don’t be upstaged by that know-it-all acquaintance who can quote Michael Barone’s “Almanac of American Politics” from memory.  You’ll be able to counter with factoids like this:

The 1994 elections were a breakthrough for the Conservative Party as we provided the margin of victory for Governor George E. Pataki with the 326,605 votes cast on our line.  Attorney General Vacco nosed out radical Karen Burstein by 88,340 votes.  He received 305,961 votes on the Conservative Line.  In 1998, 348,272 votes for Governor George E. Pataki were cast on the Conservative line, almost 20,000 more than in 1994, an anomaly in political history.”

Enjoy!

When Doug Hoffman wins the special election for NY-23 tomorrow, as he now seems poised to do, much will be written about what that means, and much of that will be meaningless.

What won’t get that much attention is that Hoffman is the candidate of New York’s scrappy Conservative Party, founded in 1962, with the support of William F. Buckley, Jr.  Buckley became the Party’s candidate for New York City mayor in 1965, losing as he knew he would, but with great wit and that wonderful twinkle in his eye.

The Party, with its own ballot line, is a political force, for decades under the savvy, never-blinking, steadfastly conservative leadership of Mike Long.  Hoffman’s win will be a rare, single line victory, but that diminishes not at all the influence New York’s Conservative Party has been able to wield over politics even in New York’s liberal wilderness, now aided mightily by the Tea Party brigades.

Have a party tomorrow night, Mike.  You and a Conservative Party worthy of the name deserve it.