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Republican county chairs in the 23rd Congressional District say there's no chance they will grant Conservative candidate Doug Hoffman's request for a series of debates with their candidate for John McHugh's seat, state Assemblywoman Deirdre Scozzafava of Gouverneur.

"Zero to none," said Franklin County Republican Chairman Jim Ellis.

"There's no way whatsoever," said Essex County Republican Committee Chairman Ronald Jackson. "Everybody is very happy. We're quite sure we chose the best candidate, and we're quite sure she's going to win."

In a Aug. 19 letter to the 11 county Republican chairs in the district, Hoffman, a Lake Placid financial advisor who tried for the Republican endorsement but was rejected, said "Dede Scozzafava is a liberal, plain and simple," and called himself a "Reagan Republican" who doesn't believe in abortion or gay marriage, both of which Scozzafava supports. He asked the party to sponsor three to five debates in Plattsburgh, Watertown and Oswego, as well as Madison and Fulton counties.

Hoffman wrote that the delay of McHugh's confirmation as secretary of the U.S. Army, which happened because two Kansas Senators want President Barack Obama to assure them that no Guantanamo Bay detainees will be moved to Fort Leavenworth, Kan., is a "great opportunity" since it gives enough time for debates.

The letter suggests that there is not consensus among the district's Republicans on the choice of Scozzafava, and reads, "I firmly believe that grass-roots Republicans should have a voice in whom our nominee is for Congress."

Jackson said the party already had four debates throughout the region with the nine candidates who were seeking the party endorsement. Hoffman was one of these.

"It was not a close contest," Jackson said. "Hoffman was basically not a player at that point. He had very little support.

"When we had an open competition, Mr. Hoffman didn't fare well head-to-head with her. He had his chance, he had as fair a chance as everyone else, and he just didn't measure up."

Ellis agreed, saying the Republicans' process for choosing a candidate was open and transparent.

"On the other (Conservative) side, they didn't even have one public meeting," Ellis said. "No one ever questions them."

He also noted that Hoffman does not live in the district, which includes Tupper Lake and most of Saranac Lake, but not Lake Placid, where Hoffman lives. Hoffman has said he would move to Saranac Lake, where he grew up, if elected.

Jackson said that during the process of choosing a candidate, all the candidates vowed they would support whomever won the endorsement, but both Hoffman and Andrew Bisselle, who tried to get the Democratic nod after not being chosen by Republicans, are going back on that.

"That pledge didn't mean anything," Jackson said. "I thought more of both of them than that. I thought they were honorable people."

"To me, it has major implications for (Hoffman's) credibility," said Hamilton County Republican Chairman William Farber.

The chairs said they are confident that Scozzafava will be able to win the seat. Jackson noted that she won about the same number of votes that McHugh did in her district.

Jackson admitted that Scozzafava is liberal on social issues.

"She's certainly more liberal than I am," Jackson said.

She is a fiscal conservative, though, Jackson said, and that's what voters are looking for in these tough economic times. He said he likes to think of Scozzafava as a "blue-dog Republican," a play on the Blue Dog Democrats who pride themselves on being fiscally conservative.

"She is clearly a very strong candidate," Farber said.

Farber said the Republican and Conservative parties, which regularly endorse the same candidates, would have to agree to disagree on this one. He said he didn't expect the tiff to interfere with relations between the two parties in the long term.

"This is really a moot point beyond this one race," Farber said.

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Contact Jessica Collier at 891-2600 ext. 25 or jcollier@adirondackdailyenterprise.com.

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(Editor's note: This article has been corrected.)