That’s the reaction of State Assemblyman Will Barclay of Oswego County, one of four possible contenders for the Republican nomination for Congress, to the continuing refusal of Doug Hoffman, last year’s losing congressional candidate, to rule out running against the Republican nominee if Republican voters do not select him.

      Monday, Albany Times-Union reporter Jimmy Vielkind asked Hoffman if he will support Will Barclay or Matt Doheny or Paul Maroun in the November general election against Owens if one of them is the choice of Republican primary voters.

      “That’s not even a consideration,” Hoffman answered.

      “That’s a very arrogant statement,” said Will Barclay. “How dare Doug Hoffman suggest that the will of the people is not even worth considering?”

      Hoffman also told the Albany newspaper: “There is no question that I am going to be the Republican and Conservative, on both ballots, in November.”

      “An election is by definition a question,” said Barclay, “and you don’t get the answer until the people step into the privacy of the voting booth and make their determination. We candidates can only ask – but it’s the voters who decide.”

  Barclay pointed out that last year Hoffman competed as one of several candidates seeking the nomination for Congress at four open gatherings of Republican committees held in different areas of the district to which hundreds of committee members were invited to attend -- and each time committee members were asked to state their preference Hoffman finished last or next to last.

        “After first publicly lavishly praising the selection process and then flip-flopping and denouncing it, and after publicly indicating that he would support whoever was nominated and then later denying that was what he meant,” said Barclay, “Hoffman got the Conservative Party nomination and during the fall campaign did things that were embarrassingly inept and foolish.”

      “Doug Hoffman publicly admitted days before last fall’s election that he knew next to nothing about our local issues and he ducked debating his opponents, one time even fleeing a town a half hour before the scheduled debate,” said Barclay. “That sort of performance by a candidate offends voters and explains why Hoffman lost to Owens and would lose again.”

      “I hope and expect that I will emerge as the Republican candidate for Congress,” said Barclay, “but if Republican voters decide that they would rather have Matt Doheny or Doug Hoffman or Paul Maroun as our party’s candidate, I will rally behind their choice and volunteer to campaign to help that candidate defeat Democrat Bill Owens.”

      “This is a pledge that I will put in writing and I’ll send copies of it to the other three prospective candidates, to party leaders and to the news media,” said Barclay, “and I call upon Doug Hoffman and the other contenders to do the same – right now, this week.”

      Barclay said he suspects that Matt Doheny and Paul Maroun would agree with him that each of the four should pledge in writing to support whoever wins the primary.

      Barclay said putting such a pledge in writing is necessary “to eliminate any confusion and remove any doubt.  No wiggle room. No waffling. Just a straight-forward honest answer.  That’s what Republican voters deserve.  Just say Yes.  Or just say No.  If you can’t bring yourself to giving a straight answer to such a simple question, you shouldn’t even think of running for Congress.” 

      “To win back the congressional seat John McHugh use to hold, we Republicans will need to be united,” said Barclay.  “I am committed to working for a united effort to defeat Owens.  Is Doug Hoffman?”

      “If Hoffman is as interested in seeing Owens defeated as he is in promoting himself, he really should urge the Conservative Party to hold off on making a selection until after the Republican primary instead of trying to blackmail Republicans with a threat of either back him or else he will try to cause us to lose to Owens.”

      “I will not let Doug Hoffman continue to get away with refusing to say whether he will support the Republican choice against Bill Owens,” said Barclay. “I’ll keep asking him this until he gives us a straight answer.”

      As for Hoffman’s release of a poll he commissioned that shows Hoffman leading Barclay, Doheny and Maroun at this point, Barclay noted that anyone who just came off spending nearly $2 million in a losing campaign would naturally enjoy much higher name recognition compared with others who have never run district-wide.

      “Hoffman’s poll is a lame bluff, but I guess I don’t fault the guy for pretending, said Barclay. “Of course it sure it sure would have been more revealing if he had include in his poll any questions about what people think about his ducking debates and not knowing our local issues. Doug Hoffman knows that the truth is that his poll means about as much as, for example, the early polls that showed Jimmy Carter crushing Ronald Reagan and Michael Dukakis and John Kerry heading into the White House.”   

Official: Assemblyman Barclay