RAGS TO RICHES & RUNNING

Lanky, spectacled and soft-spoken, Douglas L. Hoffman looks every bit the certified public accountant, businessman and financial planner he is.

The Saranac Lake resident is a self-made millionaire — a savvy businessman with a seemingly endless reserve of energy who was driven to succeed from an early age.

The story of his business success is interesting, even if it ended there. But last year Mr. Hoffman stepped into the world of politics, launching a third-party bid for New York's 23rd Congressional District seat, which includes 650,000 residents in all or parts of 11 counties, including St. Lawrence, Lewis and Jefferson.

Mr. Hoffman's foray ended in a narrow 3,584-vote (73,137 to 69,553) loss to Plattsburgh Democrat William L. Owens during a special election to fill the seat of Republican Rep. John M. McHugh, who gave up the post to become secretary of the Army.

Mr. Hoffman's grassroots candidacy on the Conservative Party ballot line created a bitter divide in New York's Republican Party, and forced Republican Assemblywoman Dierdre K. Scozzafava to drop out of the race four days before the election. She later backed Democrat Owens for the seat and has since decided not to run to keep her state Assembly seat.

Mr. Hoffman is again seeking election to the 23rd. Also running against the incumbent Mr. Owens is Alexandria Bay native and Republican Matthew A. Doheny. The Republican primary will be held Sept. 14.

A year ago, Mr. Hoffman was barely known outside of Lake Placid and Saranac Lake. But with national conservative special interest groups backing him — and his ability to appeal to thousands of small-gift donors from around the country — Mr. Hoffman drew the attention of political observers from every major newspaper, television network and website.

This time, Mr. Hoffman's name is well known by voters throughout the district. But his background isn't. His supporters say that when Mr. Hoffman's story is known, it will only enhance his appeal.

Douglas Hoffman was born in Connecticut in 1950, the second of four children to Rita Anderson and Eugene J. Hoffman. His family moved from Connecticut to Saranac Lake when Mr. Hoffman was a first grader. He and other family and friends say his early years were marred by the dissolution of his parents' marriage.

"I think I was about eight years old when the breakup started, and about 10 when it was over," said Mr. Hoffman.

His father packed his bags and moved out, a traumatic event that left the family in dire financial straits. Mr. Hoffman said he had very little contact with his father after that, and to his knowledge his father provided no child support.

"If we weren't the poorest family in Saranac Lake, we were certainly one of the poorest," Mr. Hoffman said.

Kenneth P. Garwood Jr., a financial planner at Style Bridges Associates in Canton, grew up in Saranac Lake and attended elementary and high schools with Mr. Hoffman, and also took classes with him at SUNY Canton.

With unemployment hovering close to 15 percent around Saranac Lake in the 1950s and '60s, making a living in the Adirondacks was tough on everyone, Mr. Garwood said. But he remembers it being even worse for the Hoffman family.

"He never had a father," he said. "His mother worked, the kids worked, and what they had they earned."

Dana E. Hoffman, who is a year older than his brother, recalled that "Doug and I both helped out as we could. We may not have had much, and even though we didn't have a dad, we had a good, tight family."

The older brother said he should have been the one setting the example, but in reality he was a "free spirit." In contrast, he said, his younger brother was the straight arrow in the family, the person who tried to set an example for others.

"Doug was a goody-two-shoes," said Dana Hoffman. "I always called him a bookworm, but the truth is he was just never in trouble."

Mrs. Hoffman was a bookkeeper, but the job paid little. Yet not having much money provided an early lesson for the Hoffman children.

"We learned early on that if you wanted something you had to work for it," Mr. Hoffman said. "Even when I was eight or 10 years old I found a way to earn money to get the things I wanted in life."

Mr. Hoffman shoveled snow in the winter and headed to the golf course in the summer to find stray balls he could sell to golfers. By the time he was 12, his familiar face on the links led to a job as a caddy, and at 14 he found steadier work pumping gas at a neighborhood station.

His friend, Mr. Garwood, said, "He was pumping gas in town from the time he could reach the nozzle."

"At that point I was working maybe 20 to 40 hours a week during the school time and 40 to 60 hours during the summer," Mr. Hoffman recalls. "I was probably 14 or 15 years old then, and the main reason I was working was to help my mother pay the mortgage."

Mr. Hoffman also started to tinker under the hoods of cars.

"Through that gas station job, the owner taught me everything I needed to know about mechanics," Mr. Hoffman said.

He become so adept that Mr. Hoffman pieced together a replica of a 1955 Chevy, from the chassis up when he was only 16.

"I couldn't afford a car so I built one, and I ended up having one of the nicest cars in town," he said.

A national magazine, Popular Hot Rodder, published a photo of Mr. Hoffman and his car.

But his creation was more than just a car; it was a stepping stone into a new world for the awkward, self-conscious teenager. It was the mid-1960s, and the young Doug Hoffman's new set of wheels transformed him. No longer did he see himself as simply one of the poorest kids in town — his car gave him cool cache.

And it helped him to realize he was capable of building his life into something significant.

"When you are pumping gas at 30 below zero, that is a pretty bitter experience," Mr. Hoffman said. "I learned very early on the biggest asset I had was in my head. Nothing against people who pump gas all of their lives — I just felt I had the opportunity to have the American dream. As I looked around I was wise enough to see that education was going to be the key."

After graduating from Saranac Lake High School, Mr. Hoffman received a small scholarship from local business and civic leaders in his hometown and attended North Country Community College. He eventually graduated in 1973 from SUNY Plattsburgh with a bachelor's degree in accounting. He also joined the New York State National Guard to help pay his tuition. He served in the Guard from 1970-1973 and in the U.S. Army Reserves from 1973-1976.

"That was at the time when joining the Army was not something your peer group looked at as really cool," Mr. Hoffman said. "But it was something for me. What you get out of America is what you put into America. I think it is something I needed to do, to serve my country, and yes, it would help me pay for my education as a part-time job."

Mr. Hoffman married his wife, Carol Torrance, on March 24, 1973 in Lake Placid. He continued his studies, juggling his military job with duties at home as a husband and eventually a father.

(The couple has three children: Ashleah A. and Taylor L., who are employed by Hoffman Family Enterprises, and Douglas T., a trooper in the New York State Police.)

Mr. Hoffman received a master's degree in finance and accounting from the University of Connecticut as well as accreditation as a certified public accountant.

In 1977 he returned to the north country and founded Hoffman and Associates in Lake Placid, and then purchased the long-standing Gelles accounting business in 1980. Meanwhile, Mr. Hoffman was named assistant controller for the Lake Placid Olympic Organizing Committee. But on his first day on the job, his boss unexpectedly quit.

At the age of 27 Mr. Hoffman became the head corporate controller of the Olympic effort, helping oversee a budget of $150 million.

"The Lake Placid Olympics in 1980 was a chance to put Lake Placid back on the map, and put the whole of New York state back on the map," Mr. Hoffman said. "I saw that even then, at the young age I was then, that this really could turn around the economy of the north country."

Mr. Hoffman said the Olympic Regional Development Authority is still an economic generator in the region and responsible for pumping $364 million annually across St. Lawrence, Franklin, Clinton, Essex and Hamilton counties.

After the Olympics, Mr. Hoffman expanded his personal portfolio to that of CPA, entrepreneur and civic leader.

Some of the organizations and philanthropic groups Mr. Hoffman has been affiliated with over the years include: The Adirondack Medical Center, Adirondack Medical Center Foundation, Olympic Regional Development Authority, North Country Community College, Adirondack Economic Development Corporation, Lake Placid/Essex County Visitors Bureau, Lake Placid Fire Department, North Elba/Essex County Republican Committee, Lake Placid Lions Club and the Adirondack Community Methodist Church.

In 2007, he merged his firm, Douglas L. Hoffman, CPA, and Associates, with Dragon Benware Crowley & Co. Today he is a managing partner, helping to oversee six north country offices, including locations in Malone, Canton, Massena and Watertown. He also helps run Hoffman Family Enterprises, a group of 13 companies ranging from investment and real estate firms to hospitality and tourism ventures.

Mr. Hoffman's business decisions during the last three decades have made him millions of dollars, but he credits his success to a woman who in 1959 had little money, no husband and four children.

"She was a bookkeeper at that time and worked hard at doing that," said Mr. Hoffman, about his mother, Rita, who died in 1994. "And actually, with only a high school education, she ended up working for a CPA firm up here and self-taught herself through on-the-job training and became a very good tax accountant. She ended up becoming a corporate controller for a major nursing home. She worked her way right up the ladder."

He added, "She was my role model."

Mr. Hoffman's decision to enter national politics caught both his friend, Mr. Garwood, and his brother, Dana, by surprise as he had never run for office before. It didn't take long for either one to warm up to the idea.

"Doug's always had the same work ethic," Mr. Garwood said. "He's never been any different than the guy you see now. He keeps his nose to the grindstone. He's been serious of purpose his whole life. Frivolity is not something he believes in."

Dana Hoffman believes his younger sibling will be an outstanding congressman.

"I'll tell you one thing about Doug — they'll never find an ounce of dirt on that guy," he said.

And they believe Mr. Hoffman's success in business will be seen as a benefit, despite how he and his wealth have been portrayed.

Last year, his Democrat opponent, now U.S. Rep. William Owens, ran attack ads suggesting that Mr. Hoffman had little in common with the region's voters because he was wealthy enough to own an antique car collection. Today, Mr. Hoffman grins while noting that the most prized possession of his collection is the car he has kept running for more than 40 years.

"This is America, and the American dream is to be able to go from poor, to comfortable, or even rich, and for the Democrats to think that's bad, well, that's just the opposite from the way I see America," Mr. Hoffman said. "Those cars are cars I've been collecting for 45 years now and many of them I've built myself with my own hands. To me they're just a reflection of working hard and smart."

Mr. Hoffman decided to run on the Conservative line last year after north country Republican leaders selected Ms. Scozzafava to be their standard bearer. Initially, Mr. Hoffman wrote an email to Ms. Scozzafava that read: "Hi Dede. Congratulations and the best of luck in your candidacy. Let me know if there is anything I can do to help. Doug."

Mr. Hoffman and his campaign officials say he never officially endorsed Ms. Scozzafava. He says he decided to run after he learned more about Ms. Scozzafava's voting record.

"By Oct. 10, if you remember the election last year, everybody in the world knew that Dede was a liberal candidate," Mr. Hoffman told members of the New York state tea party movement in Ogdensburg in June. "If I hadn't stood up, you would have had a choice between a liberal Democrat and an ultra-liberal Republican, and that Republican supported bailouts, supported stimulus payments, cap and trade, all of those things that are detrimental to the free enterprise system of America."

Mr. Hoffman says he is running for Congress because he fears the country is leaning too far to the left, and he predicts "a socialist agenda" in Washington will hobble future entrepreneurs like himself from having a shot at the American dream. Mr. Hoffman said the U.S. will bankrupt itself if elected officials in Washington don't stop spending more than they take in.

"We've got to stop the spending," Mr. Hoffman recently told a meet-and-greet event at the Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Gouverneur. "If two and two is four, you can't spend five or six."

The story of how Mr. Hoffman grew up and the way his family worked through its problems and out of poverty is a key part of his stump speech as he crisscrosses the district.

And the story plays well with Republicans and conservatives who believe government spending on social programs has run amok and the country is teetering on the brink of a financial tipping point.

"If you have to solve a problem, work hard and the problem will solve. I really believe that," Mr. Hoffman told voters in Gouverneur. "I'm running for office because somebody needs to stand up and fight now, or we won't have the same American dream that I have lived for our grandchildren."

Joseph A. McCarthy, an Upstate New York Tea Party member who attended a meeting with Mr. Hoffman in Ogdensburg in June, said Mr. Hoffman is a refreshing candidate because he doesn't just espouse conservative principles, but has lived them.

"I won't vote for nobody else but him," Mr. McCarthy said after spending an hour listening to the candidate. "Everything he's got he's earned. He's one of us. We need to send somebody to Washington that has real principles, not just someone with a label."

Dotty N. Wade, a resident of Gouverneur, agreed. Ms. Wade said Mr. Hoffman's stump speech touting a return to conservative Republican values reminds her of her own upbringing.

Ms. Wade said she moved to Gouverneur 35 years ago from New Jersey.

"I like that he helped his mom pay the bills," Ms. Wade said. "It's like my family growing up. Mine was a working family too. My mother and father each did two or three different things to make ends meet. And when I was 16, I went to work in a department store. It's how America really is for a lot of us."

As Mr. Hoffman travels the 23rd Congressional District, it is people like Dotty Wade whom he seems most comfortable talking with.

In Ogdensburg, Mr. Hoffman walked into an event where just a handful of people were waiting.

"This is a nice, small crowd," Mr. Hoffman said. He smiled. "Let me pull up a chair." He then spent the next 45 minutes talking about growing up poor, how he achieved success and why he needs to go to Congress to reel in spending.

"I work with people daily who are struggling to survive and pay their bills," he said. "Keep in mind, I'm from Main Street, not Wall Street. I grew up in this district. I know how hard it is."

During the meeting Mr. Hoffman was asked to explain why nine out of 11 GOP chairmen in the 23rd District decided to endorse Mr. Doheny, even though Mr. Hoffman lost by only a few thousand votes less than a year ago.

He smiled and cited the math.

"If they take all of the county committee people — and there are only 1,200 of them all together — that means Matt Doheny has focused his last four months of the race on the tip of the pyramid," said Mr. Hoffman. "Well, we have the base of that pyramid, where 70,000 people voted for me last year. I am going to keep working on the base of the pyramid while he works on the tip of it."