Sarah Palin Refuses To Endorse GOP Candidate In NY 23rd Congressional Race, Instead Endorses Conservative Party

The dynamics within the Republican Party, and the conservative teabaggers who were egged on by the GOP to rant this summer at town hall meetings has now produced some deep chasms for a party that is seeking to win some elections in 2010.

If you love politics this is the story you are following today.  If you love  cheap theatre the Congressional race in New York’s 23rd District which swings around the story of the day, is the one you need to be watching.  This is priceless! 

The donnybrook revolves around a Nov. 3 special election to replace John McHugh, the long-time Republican representative, who stepped down last month to become President Barack Obama’s Secretary of the Army.  The race was already filled with Republican intrigue and back-stabbing.  But now comes Sarah Palin in the arena and she brings her own swashbuckling style to the race.  Trust me, even the cheap seats for this show are worth grabbing.  This is one terrific event!

Sarah Palin declared more than her independence from the GOP establishment with her endorsement of Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman Thursday night. (That didn’t need much more formality, anyway.)

Palin also escalated the war inside the Republican Party — ratcheting up the battle that’s been brewing (like so much tea) virtually since President Obama’s inauguration.

Palin’s decision to take sides, and to take the particular side of a conservative locked in a long-shot battle for ideological purity, crystallizes the debate about the future of the GOP.

It ensures that a race for an open House seat in upstate New York is going to be viewed through a prism of tea parties, Glenn Beck, and ideological purity. Two of the highest-profile races on the ballot Nov. 3 feature right-leaning third-party candidates — vessels for the anger that’s been percolating all year.

And it all could begin to shape the early 2012 field, with would-be candidates who’d rather sit this battle out under pressure to declare sides.

“The New York race is a microcosm of the dilemma faced by parties out of power: How much purity should you insist on from your members?”ABC’s Teddy Davis reports. “The Republican that Palin has passed over supports abortion rights, same-sex marriage and legislation that would make union organizing easier. In backing the Conservative Party candidate, Palin finds herself in the company of many TEA party activists, plus former House Republican Leader Dick Armey of Texas.”

Game on: “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,” Politico’s Alex Isenstadt reports.

In the other corner… Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich: “The choice in New York is a practical one,” Gingrich writes in endorsing Republican Dede Scozzafava. “My number one interest in the 2009 elections is to build a Republican majority. If your interest is taking power back from the Left, and your interest is winning the necessary elections, then there are times when you have to put together a coalition that has disagreement within it.”

Can Democrats pick up the GOP’s pieces? From a memo going out to Democratic House members Friday, from DCCC Chairman Chris Van Hollen: “This race presents a unique opportunity for Democrats in a conservative-leaning Republican open seat. NY-23 has not been represented by a Democrat in nearly 120 years (since 1890).”