With all the MSM pundits calling Hoffmans loss a loss for the conservative movement, maybe we need to actually look at what happened.
We had party hacks pick a Liberal (not moderate) Republican to run against a moderate (right of the Republican candidate) Democrat.
The conservatives ran Hoffman as a spoiler and he did his job, Dede conceded, conservatives won, a moderate Democrat is now in office for a year vs a liberal Republican.
What was not expected was that Dede would drop out days before the election. to add insult to the Republican hacks Dede went and added her support to the Democrat. Had there been a week or more between when Dede dropped out and the election maybe the result would have been different. Or better if the party hacks had picked an actual moderate or conservative candidate rather than a liberal one this never would have come into being.
But that is not all. we had a Stiff and not very well spoken conservative party candidate carpetbagger come within spitting distance of winning the 23rd vs Owens who is from the 23rd. That is not good news for Owens if he doesn't deliver.
Edited Nov-4 by Carl Feick (SYSOP) | 
