Concerned women love Hoffman

The political action arm of the Concerned Women for America, a pro-life group which has more than a half million members nationwide, has just endosed Conservative candidate Doug Hoffman.

“Doug is the only conservative in the race, and the only candidate who is pro-life and pro-family," said Beverly LaHaye, founder and chairman, in a statement. "That is why Concerned Women Political Action Committee has endorsed Doug Hoffman.”

The PAC sent out a letter Tuesday encouraging all its members to financially support Mr. Hoffman. Mike Mears, the group's spokesman, said Wednesday morning that the group has less than 1,000 members in the district who can also vote for the Conservative candidate.

In her statement, Ms. LaHaye echoed the Conservatives' mantra: that Republican Dede Scozzafava is just too liberal.

"It's hard to call someone a Republican when they have a conservative rating of 15 (out of 100), lower than 46 Democrats in the legislature and they have been endorsed by the liberal Working Families Party the same year they endorsed Barack Obama,” she said.

Of course, Ms. Scozzafava's camp has pointed out that Conservatives have endorsed more than 80 candidates in the last decade that also received the Working Families Party line - including the Republican candidate, who earned both endorsements in 2004 & 2006.

But there I go injecting facts into a conversation where they obviously have no place, right?

Mr. Mears said the group did not endorse a candidate in the 20th Congressional District special election this past spring. He said the group had initially considered Republican Jim Tedisco until they learned he was in favor of civil unions.

UPDATE: That, of course, is interesting because I thought that Mr. Hoffman told me that he was also in support of civil unions.

I had asked him if he was in support of or against civil unions for same-sex couples. His exact quote: "Any two people should be able to enter into any legal contract. No one should be persecuted or prosecuted for their beliefs."

Rob Ryan, his spokesman, and I just had a very animated discussion about this. I think we agreed on the following:

- I should not have assumed just because Mr. Hoffman said anyone should be able to enter into any legal contract that he was in support of civil unions. Even though, as I think about it now, how the heck do you get into a civil union? Isn't there some legal contract involved? It's legally recognized.

- I should have asked a follow up question to clarify Mr. Hoffman's position. I asked a direct question and he didn't give me a direct answer. But I should have asked a follow-up question.

- Mr. Hoffman's campaign should have corrected the record regarding his position. After all, they issued a statement clarifying his position on "Don't Ask Don't Tell," which is from that very same article. (Interestingly enough, that got screwed up because I did ask the clarifying question.)

- Mr. Hoffman would have saved us all a lot of trouble if he had just started his answer with the word, "No."

- Mr. Hoffman was able to give Concerned Women for America a straight answer about this issue, but could not provide the same courtesy to the Watertown Daily Times. Actually, I think Rob and I have agreed to disagree on this last point.

Besides Mr. Hoffman, Concerned Women's recent endorsements include Tim Huelskamp for Kansas' 1st district, Andy Harris for Maryland's 1st district and Steve Pearce for his former seat in New Mexico's 2nd district.

Mr. Harris, a Maryland state senator, lost his bid for Congress last year. Mr. Huelskamp and Mr. Pearce are running for seats that will be open next year.