Candidates play down some alliances

WASHINGTON — For the major party candidates in the 23rd Congressional District race, success in November may mean keeping some old and new friends at arm's length.

Republican Dierdre K. Scozzafava's campaign has been flooding reporters' e-mails lately with news of endorsements from Newt Gingrich, Rep. Peter King and the National Rifle Association, to name just a few reliable conservatives.

But one of her biggest campaign contributors during her decade in the state Assembly — the organization of gay and lesbian Republicans called the Log Cabin Republicans — is notably absent from her press releases, despite the group's enthusiastic support for her to fill the congressional seat vacated by former Rep. John M. McHugh, R-Pierrepont Manor.

That Ms. Scozzafava would not highlight her alliance with gay rights advocates is no surprise, given the conservative backlash she has faced in the three-way race and the campaign cash she needs from national Republican sources. Her spokesman, Matthew A. Burns, replied with just five words when asked to elaborate on her views about gay marriage: "Her position is well documented."

Translation: she voted twice in the Assembly to allow gay marriage, in 2007 and this year.

The Log Cabin group rewarded her in 2008 with a $3,800 campaign contribution, rivaled only by the checks she has received from organized labor — another group frowned upon by her party's conservative leadership in Washington.

If elected, Ms. Scozzafava could give the Log Cabin Republicans a renewed voice in the House, where supporters of gay rights are pushing hard to overturn the military's ban on openly gay and lesbian members and to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, a Republican-sponsored law that defined marriage as between a man and a woman. President Obama has endorsed both moves, and a Democratic majority makes votes on the issue more likely than when Republicans controlled the agenda.

The Log Cabin Republicans, named in honor of the party's first president, Abraham Lincoln, has 30,000 members nationwide but has lost some key congressional allies to retirement and election defeat.

The group has not stopped the flow of money to Ms. Scozzafava. A spokesman for the national Log Cabin office in Washington said the group "has been raising considerable financial resources for her campaign" even as she is pulled to the political right by the Washington Republican establishment. The organization told the Washington Blade in September that it aims to raise $50,000 for her.

"We're absolutely behind Dede in her race for Congress," the Log Cabin Republicans' national spokesman, Christian A. Berle, said in an e-mail Friday.

The New York Log Cabin group's director, Jeff Cook, has been working closely with her campaign, he said. Mr. Cook did not return an e-mail message seeking comment.

"We have endorsed her from our Political Action Committee and have contributed to her campaign financially, and through Jeff's efforts been raising considerable financial resources for her campaign," Mr. Berle said.

The Empire State Pride Agenda, which supported Ms. Scozzafava in the Assembly but does not make federal endorsements, credits her with standing up to her party's leadership on a risky political issue.

"You rarely see someone who was a junior member buck her party," Empire State Pride Agenda Executive Director Alan Van Capelle said.

If the north country elects her, "they'd be sending an independent, tough woman who believes every New Yorker deserves to be treated equally," Mr. Van Capelle said.

Mr. King, who lauded her Friday for "fighting for lower taxes, lower spending and the core principles of our party," supports a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage and in 2007 voted against a bill to prohibit job discrimination based upon sexual orientation.

Ms. Scozzafava has not offered her views on the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, but the Log Cabin Republicans call its repeal one of their top priorities in Washington.

Ms. Scozzafava is not alone in efforts to avoid being boxed into special-interest corners.

William L. Owens, the Democratic candidate, might seem a logical candidate for the congressional Blue Dog Coalition, a group of conservative Democrats, given the nature of the congressional district. But neither his campaign nor a spokeswoman for the Blue Dogs had much to say about each other Friday.

A spokesman for Mr. Owens, Jonathan P. Boughtin, said the candidate is "focused on Election Day right now."

The Blue Dogs have had a presence upstate. Rep. Michael A. Arcuri, D-Utica, is a member and was an early arrival at Mr. Owens's Capitol Hill fundraiser Thursday evening. Sen. Kirsten E. Gillibrand, D-N.Y., joined when she represented the eastern Adirondacks and Hudson Valley in the House.

On gay rights issues, Mr. Owens has said only that overturning the military ban "needs to be looked at closely." He said that he supports civil unions and that states should decide whether to allow gay marriage within their borders.

In doing so, Mr. Owens would break with the more liberal leadership of his party, despite GOP efforts to tag him as a protege of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. In an interview Thursday in Washington, Mr. Owens acknowledged he is not talking much about his trips to the capital to hobnob with the House speaker and other Democratic leaders who can help him raise cash. If elected, he said, his loyalty would be to north country priorities.

Those qualities suggest that either candidate could become an annoyance to his or her leadership — Ms. Scozzafava because of her support for some liberal causes, and Mr. Owens for his refusal to support them. The Blue Dogs have complicated much of Mrs. Pelosi's agenda, forcing her to compromise at least slightly on issues such as health care reform and the economic stimulus, and revealing cracks in the party.

Ms. Scozzafava and Mr. Owens also are facing Conservative Party candidate Douglas L. Hoffman in the race.