Hoffman to Owens: Ask Obama to defund ACORN, send Justice here

Doug Hoffman, the Conservative Party candidate for the 23rd Congressional District, won't likely meet President Obama before this campaign ends. But he's got a message to pass to our Commander in Chief - and he's asking his opponent to do it.

Mr. Hoffman just sent a release asking Bill Owens, the Democrats' candidate for the 23rd Congressional District, to ask Mr. Obama - like a bad game of telephone - to defund the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) and send Justice Department monitors to this district to "prevent the Working Families Party from stealing this election."

Let's start with the obvious. Mr. Owens is scheduled to meet Mr. Obama in under an hour in New York City, so there little chance this message will be received. It's far more likely that this release's true aim is to take another opportunity to tie both of Mr. Hoffman's opponents to the embattled ACORN through its association to the Working Families Party.

The progressive party has endorsed Mr. Owens for the 23rd race, and Republican Dede Scozzafava was endorsed by the Working Families Party in her 2004, 2006 and 2008 state Assembly bids. Ms. Scozzafava was also endorsed by the Conservative Party in 2004 and 2006, but that's often overlooked.

Mr. Hoffman is also capitalizing on the news of the day - or the news of the day if you're a Fox News devotee.

A state Supreme Court justice tossed 39 absentee ballots cast during a Working Families Party primary in Troy last month on the grounds that they appeared to be fraudulent. Troy is in Rensselaer County - in the 20th Congressional District.

There is no record and no pattern of voter fraud here.

The Fox News article, the Times Union articles and the local TV station articles don't accuse Working Families Party members of doing anything close to "stealing" these city and county elections. In fact, it seems pretty clear that they don't yet know who did it - and that some people are actually pointing fingers at registered Democrats.

Of course, even if Mr. Owens is to get the message in time and ask the question, it's likely the president won't give him a response anyway.