He is not a lawyer. Congress is full of lawyers, and look at what a mess this country is in. We need more accountants in Congress, not lawyers.

Doheny and Owens are both lawyers.

Hoffman’s work has put him in contact with thousands of taxpayers in the North Country. He knows from first-hand experience the burdens that people in the North Country are suffering because of the laws and our corrupt tax system.

Doheny has never served in the military. Hoffman, on the other hand, was a sergeant in the United States Army.

He knows from actually serving in the military what havoc changing our current "don’t ask-don’t tell" policy could cause in our military service. Unfortunately, the decision is likely to be made by people, including President Obama, that were never in the service or, as in the case of Owens, went through the service as a Captain without having to worry about being sexually harassed.

Our veterans deserve our support on this and other issues, and as a fellow veteran, I don’t think that Hoffman would ever let them down.

If Hoffman is not in the race, the only veteran running would be Owens.

As far as I know, Doheny has never had the life experience of being married. He has never had the life experience of having and raising children. He has never had the experience of having grandchildren.

Hoffman’s life experience will stand him in good stead in Congress when Congress is considering bills that impact upon our families, whether it be the definition of marriage, education of children, or anything else having to do with families.

Our families need our support, and Hoffman has the life experience to help do that.

It soon became clear after the Republican bosses picked Dede Scozzafava as their candidate last year that she was a supporter of card check. Card check is one of the most un-American concepts that we have. We can be pretty sure that Owens will support it.

If you have non-secret voting for whether a shop becomes union or not, all it takes intimidation or worse by the union to get workers to vote for the union. Why are the union leaders afraid of the secret ballot?

The secret ballot is precious in our country, and we need to keep it.

The parties leaders also knew that Scozzafava was pro abortion. They knew that she was pro gay marriage.

Only Hoffman was willing to step up to the plate when her beliefs became clear and challenge Scozzafava.

We should not fall for the line that Hoffman said he would support the winning candidate. First of all, that is not a fair demand to make of a candidate. What if the party leaders pick somebody who has views totally in opposition to that of the candidate or views at odds with the party platform itself? By making that demand, you are going to get candidates that will put party over principle. Secondly, it was not widely known when that question was asked that Scozzafava was a RINO. The party leaders may have known. If they did, that was a very unfair question to ask. It was designed to prevent anybody from disagreeing with the party leaders, not to get a good Conservative Republican elected.

Despite the fact that it became known that Scozzafava was in favor of card check, in favor of abortion, in favor of gay marriage, etc., Doheny donated $2400.00, the maximum amount legally allowed, to her campaign in October 2009.

What does that tell us about how firm his beliefs are?

Actions speak louder than words.

What do we know about Doheny other than what he tells us? I have met him and he seems like a nice man. However, I have met lots of people over the years who seem like nice people and then turn out to be different. I just don’t know him well enough to feel comfortable. I voted for Assemblywoman Janet Duprey twice and then found out that she was a big supporter of DeDe Scozzafava and is liberal on the social issues. I voted for John McHugh each time he ran, and he ended up supporting card check and working for Obama’s administration.

We know that Doheny has a lot of personal money, and we know he has sprinkled the money liberally among various Republican County Committees in the district as well as the state Republican Party.

How did he make his money? That has never been made clear to me, other than it was in Manhattan. I know where Hoffman made at least some of his money because I have personally seen his accountant work for more than 30 years which has always been done in an honest, competent, and courteous manner from what I could tell. I am confident that I know him well enough after 30 years to know that he is not going to let us down when voting.

People Hoffman has worked with, people he has grown up with, people that have worked with him on various charities, and many others that have seen his actions, not just his words, live throughout the North Country. It is easy to find out what kind of a person he is just by talking to them. Doheny’s contacts are all in Manhattan, as are most of his big donors as far as I have heard. Manhattan is not exactly a bastion of Conservatives. Who are those donors and why are they giving him money? You can bet that Hoffman’s donors are all Conservatives (the cheapskates). I am not so sure about Doheny’s donors.

Yes, Hoffman is not as smooth a talker in public as Doheny. Nobody disputes that. I am more concerned about how my congressman will vote, howver, than how smooth a talker he is.

Doheny states that he supports abortion at least during the first three months.

A human being is a human being whether it is one month old or nine months old. Hoffman’s position is consistent as to the value of all human life. He makes no arbitrary distinction as to when a human life becomes precious after coming into existence.

This is an area that is not clear about Doheny’s background. It looks like he was brought up in a typical middle class family, whereas Hoffman grew up in poverty with the children being raised by a single mother whose father had abandoned the family. Hoffman went to work in high school as an auto mechanic to help pay the family bills, not just to earn spending money for himself like we all probably did.

Hoffman has the personal experience to know that handouts are not always the best answer and that people can succeed with hard work even if they come from poverty.

Mike Long has stated that Hoffman has the support of the Conservative Party. Hoffman took a huge financial and personal risk last year when nobody else was willing to do it by stepping forward to take on Scozzafava. The Conservative Party has not forgotten that.

If the Republican establishment had supported Hoffman last year from the beginning, I believe that he would have won and we would have a Conservative Republican representing us now.

If the Republicans support Hoffman this year as they should have done last year, Hoffman can win this race with their support and that of the Conservative Party. I think Hoffman will come on strong as he did last year and win the Republican primary. If he has both lines, he can win.

CONCLUSION: Doheny can’t match the above items. He can’t come up with his own top ten reasons why he would be better in the job. He may have more money and he may have more support among the same Republican leaders who endorsed DeDe Scozzafava last year, and he may have contributed more to the county committees of those leaders, but if those are the reasons he should be elected they do not impress me.

Doheny may well have a promising future in politics, and he may be a true Conservative on most issues. As I said earlier, he seems like a nice guy. I think he should start at a lower level to prove himself, however, such as Assembly or county legislature. He is young enough that if he proves himself, he could succeed Hoffman when Hoffman retires.