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Conservative R's must be getting out the message to pile on Kevin McCarthy for donating to a centrist R candidate (endorsed by the NRA, btw) in a New York congressional race.

First we got the release (pasted in below) from the local chapter of the California Republican Assembly, sent early Monday. Then today, our Opinion editor got an e-mail from a woman grousing about the same issue.

(For another perspective, here's a blog post from an area NPR reporter on endorsements and a Washington Post blog on whether, with a Palin vs Gingrich divide, the special election is a litmus test for 2012.)

Here's what's come in so far:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  
Contact:   Martin Bertram
October 25, 2009         & nbsp;       &n bsp;       &nb sp;       &nbs p;         ;                 & nbsp;       &n bsp;     
 
Kevin McCarthy Backs Liberal for Congressional Seat
 
Bakersfield—Congressmen Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) is backing a liberal Republican candidate, who favors abortion and homosexual marriage, has close ties with ACORN, and supported Obama’s trillion dollar stimulus package, for New York’s 23rd Congressional District seat in the coming special election.  Her main opponent is Doug Hoffman; a social and fiscal conservative who is favored by conservatives including Sarah Palin and Fred Thompson. 
 
This conflict is indicative of the current battle for the identity of the Republican Party, with one side standing upon immutable conservative principles, and the other side willing to sell out on principles in order to build a larger party. 
 
“We applaud the conservative Republicans who are supporting the principled candidate,” stated Martin Bertram, First Vice President of the Republican Assembly of Kern County. “A party without principles is not worth having.  It appears that Representative McCarthy favors party growth over principles.”

“The Conscience of the Republican Party”
Social and Fiscal Conservatives
www.RepublicanAssemblyofKernCounty.com
 
P.O. Box 20141
Bakersfield, CA 93390-0141
United States
 
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Here's the email:

Subject: Mr. Price, you may remember me from post-9/11....

...
I wanted to let you know that Bakersfield's Congressman, Kevin McCarthy, is supporting a Very Liberal Republican running in a special election in New York's 23rd Congressional District. The woman's name is Dede Scozzafava.  Her opponent, running on the Conservative line, is a Republican who is socially conservative, a CPA and backed by many other conservative Republicans who know we need a Republican like him in Congress. Today, Rep. Dana Rohrbacher endorsed Hoffman.
Below is today's NY Post endorsement of Hoffman and an article from The Hill with McCarthy's support of Scozzafava.  I think the people of Bakersfield need to know that their Congressman is supporting someone who would be considerable a radical leftist in Bakersfield...
If you would like more information, please don't hesitate to contact me.
Best,
Julie

Here are stories e-mail links to:

New York Post endorsement of Hoffman

The Hill story  includes this graf mentioning Kevin:

Just 17 members — about 10 percent of the GOP conference — have written checks to Scozzafava’s campaign. They include House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.), National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) Chairman Pete Sessions (Texas) and Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who is in charge of recruiting candidates to run next year.

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-- Gretchen Wenner, staff writer