Conservative seeks cash to contest 23rd District House race

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Doug Hoffman, Conservative Party congressional candidate in New York's 23rd district, speaks during an election night event in Saranac Lake, early Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2009. Hoffman is now writing to supporters saying he lost a local race for a U.S. House of Representatives seat because of scheming. Seth Wenig

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November 20, 2009

By VALERIE BAUMAN The Press Republican Fri Nov 20, 2009, 07:40 AM EST

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A Conservative Party candidate is writing to supporters saying he lost a local race for a U.S. House of Representatives seat because of scheming, and he's asking for financial help in case he decides to lodge a legal challenge.

Earlier this week, Doug Hoffman withdrew the concession he issued to Democratic Rep. Bill Owens on election night, saying if he had known how close the 23rd Congressional District race was he would have stayed in it. The rural upstate district had long been represented by Republicans.

The Federal Election Commission said recount funds are legal, but the contributions would have to meet campaign finance limits, and if the money isn't used for a recount it would have to be refunded.

Hoffman conceded on election night when he learned he was down by about 5,300 votes out of more than 136,000 votes cast. Owens was sworn in to Congress days after the Nov. 3 election.

But after counties started the mandatory process of checking the machine count with a count of paper ballots, the state Board of Elections reported Hoffman was down by only 3,000 votes with thousands of absentee ballots yet to be tallied.

"Recent developments," Hoffman said in his letter, "leave me to wonder who is scheming behind closed doors, twisting arms and stealing elections from the voters of NY-23."

His campaign still hasn't decided whether to lodge any legal action demanding a recount, spokesman Rob Ryan said.

"There are irregularities out there that are becoming very obvious," Ryan said. "At the appropriate time, if we decide to contest this election, we will lay them all out."

Hoffman's letter accused Oswego Board of Elections officials of "mischief." He said one of the reasons he conceded was his small, 500-vote election night lead with 93 percent of precincts reporting in Oswego, which is considered his stronghold. As more votes were counted the next two days, they found Hoffman led there by 1,748 votes: 12,748 to 11,000.

The Oswego Board of Elections' Democratic commissioner, William Scriber, said Hoffman's statement was "absolutely false and ridiculous."