Dede Scozzafava is the Republican running in a special election in New York’s 23rd Congressional District. The seat became vacant when John McHugh, a Republican who had held the seat for 9 terms resigned to become the Secretary of the Army.

Scozzafava is a liberal Republican, and that’s putting it mildly.  Mark Steyn accuses her of being a DIABLO – Democrat In All But Label Only.

After Scozzafava was nominated by the local party officials, Doug Hoffman, who had also sought the GOP nomination, decided to run under the Conservative Party banner.  The race is now split pretty evenly 3 ways.

The blog-o-sphere is pretty riled up about this race, as it is seen as the culmination of the sentiment that was brought out in the Tea Parties earlier this year.  The Tea Party Participants are just as pissed at the Republicans as they are at the Democrats.  Hoffman, the conservative in the race, is supported by the local Tea Party organizers.

The battle over endorsements is interesting to watch.  The national party is supporting the GOP candidate, and so is Newt Gingrich, while other conservative organizations like the Club for Growth and Fred Thompson’s PAC are supporting Hoffman.

The one part of this that I want to comment on is that some conservatives are mistakenly focusing their discontent on the national Republican apparatus, the RNC and the NRCC.

Now, don’t get me wrong – the RNC and the NRCC (and the NRSC) are far from perfect.  I have not, and will not give any money to the national party, for a variety of reasons that I won’t go into here.

But, the decision to nominate Scozzfava was a local decision. It happened at the county level (with some urging from the state party).  Once the decision was made, the national party needs to support the endorsed candidate.  That’s how it works. That is what they are supposed to do.

It can’t work the other way.  Where we get into trouble is when the national party tries to intervene in state races.  (See the Florida and Pennsylvania Senate races as exhibits A and B.)

Conservatives, on the other hand, are free to endorse or support whoever they want.  Fred Thompson or Newt Gingrich or the club for Growth can support whoever they want.  And they are doing so.

The lesson here is that conservatives need to get involved in party politics at the local level.  The decision to nominate Scozzfava happened there.  If the county apparatus was full of conservatives, then Scozzfava would never have been the candidate.

I am a precinct committeeman in my local precinct here in AZ, and I was the precinct chair for my precinct back in MN.  The nominations for official party endorsements start there.  There are a fixed number of precinct representatives.  Each gets one vote.  If the majority of those positions are held by conservatives, then the candidates that the party endorses will be more conservative.  It’s that easy.

If people out there really want to change the direction of the country and/or the party, they need to get involved.  It’s not enough to just bitch about it.  You have to do something.  And it’s easy.  All I had to do to join was ask.  You may think you live in an area where it won’t make a difference, but that’s not true.  There are a ton of local races, city council, school board, etc.  Today’s mayors are tomorrow’s congressmen or governors.

So find out where your local party meets and get involved.  Get nominated for something.  Endorse some candidates.  My time commitment is about 2 hours a month at this point, though I could sign up for more, and probably will.  But just showing up at the meetings and casting your vote for the right endorsements is a huge step in the right direction.

Bitching and getting mad is not enough.  Do something.