Below The Beltway

Politico’s Alex Isenstadt notes that a special election in upstate New York is turning into an early test of whether the Tea Party movement will have any political staying power:

Tea party activists from across the nation are rallying around the House special election in upstate New York, viewing it as the first electoral test of the nascent conservative movement’s political muscle.

Organizers up and down the East Coast report that activists are making their way into the campaign offices of Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman, with the volunteers focusing their efforts in Oswego, Madison and Jefferson counties. While tea party organizers say the election is a unique opportunity to hold the Democratic and Republican parties to account, much of their energy is being directed against Dede Scozzafava, the GOP establishment-backed nominee whom they view as a squishy moderate who represents all that is wrong with the Republican Party.

“I went here from Washington, D.C., saying, ‘Now what?’” said Jennifer Bernstone, an organizer for Central New York 912, a Syracuse-based tea party group that so far has about 300 members getting out the vote for Hoffman. “Well, here’s the ‘Now what.’”

(…)

For the tea party activists, the special election represents the next big event for the loosely confederated movement, which began earlier this year with local Tax Day “tea parties,” followed by town hall protests and a Sept. 12 March on Washington.

“I think, nationally, the tea party movement to a person is supporting Hoffman,” said Leahy.

On Thursday, former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas), chairman of FreedomWorks, an organization that has played a role in coordinating tea party activities, personally endorsed Hoffman and implored his conservative followers to get on board.

“You’re sitting right in the eye of the storm. This country is at a crossroads,” Armey told supporters, according to an account in the Syracuse Post-Standard. “We have a special election. This is the game-changer. We’ve struggled with a Republican Party … that has lost its way. They don’t remember about [President Ronald] Reagan. … They don’t remember about small government. They let their thinking be controlled by self-serving political objects. And frankly, they made a lot of fools out of themselves.”

FreedomWorks is now set to launch an aggressive effort to educate voters on what it says are the differences between Hoffman and Scozzafava. Adam Brandon, a FreedomWorks spokesman, said the organization would have hundreds of members on the ground in the closing days of the contest and will distribute call lists to members across the country who can’t make it to upstate New York.

Armey himself is set to embark on a whistle-stop and media tour with Hoffman and will headline a fundraiser for the Conservative Party nominee. On Wednesday, Armey huddled with tea party activists who are playing a role in the race.

And it’s not just Armey lending his weight to the Hoffman campaign, late Thursday, Sarah Palin formally endorsed the Conservative Party candidate:

Former Alaska GOP Gov. Sarah Palin on Thursday endorsed Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman over Dede Scozzafava, the Republican Party’s choice, in the special election for New York’s 23rd congressional district.

“The people of the 23rd Congressional District of New York are ready to shake things up, and Doug Hoffman is coming on strong as Election Day approaches! He needs our help now,” Palin wrote in a statement that will be posted on her Facebook page late Thursday.

“I am very pleased to announce my support for Doug Hoffman in his fight to be the next Representative from New York’s 23rd Congressional district. It’s my honor to endorse Doug and to do what I can to help him win, including having my political action committee, SarahPAC, donate to his campaign the maximum contribution allowed by law,” Palin continued. “Our nation is at a crossroads, and this is once again a ‘time for choosing.’”

Of course what Sarah Palin, Dick Armey, or Newt Gingrich, who is taking heat from the right for his endorsement of the Republican candidate rather than the upstart Hoffman, know about what the people of New York’s 23rd District either want or need is something that nobody’s really talking about. Nonetheless they, and many others, have insinuated themselves into this race and turned it into a national referendum on President Obama and the future of the Republican Party.

At the same time, though, it seems that Hoffman needs to focus on local issues rather than his status as the newest darling of the Tea Party Movement:

We just had a wacky hour at the Watertown Daily Times.

Blogger Robert Stacy McCain, who is following Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman around today, banged out a story at my desk while I was inside the publisher’s office watching the fireworks.

John B. Johnson Jr. was clear in this morning’s editorial in our paper: The issues germane to the 23rd Congressional District are not being talked about because that discourse is getting drowned out by the cacophony from special interest groups outside the district.

Mr. Hoffman, it appeared, had not taken the time to read the local opinion page before visiting. When asked about the rooftop highway that could connect Watertown to Plattsburgh, Mr. Hoffman said he was “open to reviewing and studying it.”

When asked about winter navigation on the St. Lawrence Seaway, he took no position. When asked about widening and deeping the Seaway, he again said nothing.

The atmosphere was tense, at times. . . .

Or, as the Watertown Daily Times put it in an editorial Thursday:

Here is a short list of issues which have been consistently important in the north country.

■ How do they feel about federal attempts to widen and deepen the St. Lawrence Seaway to accommodate larger oceangoing ships?

■ Do they support winter navigation in the Seaway?

■ How would they help protect the waterway from encroachment of invasive species?

■ Where do they stand on the development of a rooftop highway from Watertown to Plattsburgh?

■ Would they approve of plans to transform the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corp. into a federal power-marketing entity, as proposed by Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio?

■ What factors should determine the location of power-generating facilities in the rural district? Should any areas be off-limits?

■ How should the routing of electrical transmission lines to convey power from rural to urban areas be located and permitted?

■ Will the candidates commit to protecting the power generated at the Moses-Saunders Power Dam that makes possible thousands of jobs in Northern New York?

■ How do they stand on border issues? Should security override citizens’ desire to travel freely between Northern New York and Canada and the need for smooth commercial travel? Should the federal government interrupt fishing trips, picnics and boating excursions in the name of protecting the border?

■ Acid rain. Adirondack issues. Water levels. Dairy issues. Fort Drum. Wind power. In their campaigns so far, the candidates have only touched upon the many areas in which they will be expected to govern if elected.

Voters know where Assemblywoman Scozzafava stands since she has held elective office for 20 years.

However instead of focusing on any of Ms. Scozzafava’s work on all of the above issues, outside interests keep reminding us of what we already know about her positions on abortion and gay marriage.

The scarcity of discussion and debate on the nuts-and-bolts issues of the complex 23rd Congressional District does a disservice to its residents.

No one in Washington votes in this election, but inside the Beltway cadre’s efforts to decide this election is an arrogant abuse of political ambition.

The efforts of the Tea Party crowd and, now, apparently, Sarah Palin to turn this race into a national referendum could succeed, but they could backfire spectacularly if the voters in the 23rd District start to think that their real day-to-day concerns are being ignored.

Tip O’Neill once said that “All politics is local.” And, he’s right. Supporters of Doug Hoffman would do well to remember that.