Hoffman In For '10

Accountant Doug Hoffman will again run for the seat he narrowly lost in a special election earlier this month, he said in a statement on his campaign website Thursday.

"[O]ur energies are now directed toward 2010," Hoffman wrote. "Full speed ahead to 2010. This gives us time to carefully articulate and communicate thoughtful positions on issues that impact the great people of our district."

Hoffman narrowly lost the race to fill Army Sec. John McHugh's open seat in upstate NY. After GOP nominee Dede Scozzafava suspended her campaign and backed businessman Bill Owens (D), Owens won a small plurality.

Next time, Hoffman said, his three month-long campaign will be better-prepared.

"We take away lessons from this year's campaign that will make us stronger and more competitive in the future," he wrote. "Next time we will be better prepared. Many people forget that our campaign only began in earnest three months ago. Most campaigns of this stature take at least a year to prepare. In three months, we almost toppled an entrenched political system and successfully defied the conventional thinking of the elite political punditry. Citizen government is making a comeback in America."

We're betting national GOPers will be more open to his candidacy this year, now that he will have to run in a primary. Still, Owens will be a formidable candidate with the power -- and liabilities -- of incumbency, and Hoffman has his own issues on which he can improve as a candidate.

Hoffman rescinded a concession he made in the early morning hours after election night, and he's spent the last few weeks making an issue of alleged vote fraud; he has basically blamed ACORN for his loss. People who focus on the last election don't do terribly well on the future one -- just ask Chris Jennings, the Dem nominee in FL-13, who complained about her narrow 369-vote loss under questionable circumstances to Rep. Vern Buchanan in '06; in 2008, she lost her rematch in '08 by a 55%-38% margin. Hoffman will have to get over his loss this year to make a new argument next year.

But he's already started making that new path. Hoffman says he and his backers need to help "other fiscal, common-sense conservatives" get elected, continuing his tendency not to bring up social issues during his campaign. That sounds remarkably like the conversation Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell had with VA voters, a playbook GOPers are eager to mimic next year.

(REID WILSON)