Obama backs conservative Democrat

by Michael Muskal

President Barack Obama has a new take on party ideology: Taking time out from a busy schedule to speak at a fundraiser tonight for a New York congressional candidate who makes no secret of his more conservative leanings.

Obama's appearance tonight in Manhattan is on behalf of Democratic candidate Bill Owens, who polls show is running slightly ahead of a more liberal Republican and an even more conservative opponent. All three are sparring in a special election for the congressional seat vacated when Obama named moderate Republican John M. McHugh to be secretary of the Army.

(The president also will speak at a fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee tonight expected to raise $2 to $3 million for the party.)

The New York congressional race has become something of a microcosm of the political confusions that are rumbling through the major political parties this year.

(It's also one of three big political tests coming in November, with Republicans and Democrats battling for the governor's offices in New Jersey -- where Obama will campaign for Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine this week -- and in Virginia, where Obama has raised money for Democratic candidate Creigh Deeds.)

Democrats, split between liberal and conservative wings, are finding it hard to fashion common ground on key issues such as health-care reform. And Republicans, hoping to stoke the energy of conservative unhappiness, are having a hard time finding a place for the moderates they need for electoral success.

The 23rd Congressional District is deep in upstate New York near the Canadian border. It has sent only Republicans to Congress since about the Civil War.

Tonight, Obama is expected to speak well of Owens, who opposes a robust public option in the current health-care reform debate. Owens also opposes same sex marriage, which has the support of rival Republican Dierdre Scozzafava, a New York State Assemblywoman since 1998. She also is pro-abortion rights. Among her supporters is former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

Complicating the picture is the Conservative Party, which has long outgrown its origin as a cats' paw of the GOP to become the tail that often wags the feline, at least in New York politics.

On the conservative side, riding a wave of discontent with Democrats and moderate Republicans is Doug Hoffman, who opposes gay and abortion rights and sees himself as the true Republican, having gained the endorsement of the GOP right, including the Club for Growth, the Family Research Council Action PAC and even former House
Majority Leader Dick Armey.

How to deal with conservatives has become a key question for the national GOP after a summer of Tea Party demonstrations and abrasive town hall meetings. Since this is an off-year election, it is sure to be seen as another straw in the wind for 2010.