page_title: Conservative Party of New York State
section_title: 2000s
hierarchical_section_title: Conservative Party of New York State / History / 2000s
context_page_description: The Conservative Party of New York State is a political party founded in 1962. The Party was founded due to conservative dissatisfaction with the Republican Party in New York. Since 2010, the Conservative Party has held "Row C" on New York ballots—the third-place ballot position, directly below the Democratic and Republican parties—because it received the third-highest number of votes of any political party in the 2010, 2014, and 2018 gubernatorial elections.
context_section_description: The party ran its own candidates for Mayor of New York City in the 2001, 2005, and 2009, declining to support successful Republican candidate Michael Bloomberg.
  In 2006, the party did not support Jeanine Pirro's candidacy for the 2006 Senate election against Hillary Clinton. Under pressure from the Conservative Party and factions within the GOP, Pirro withdrew from the race in November 2005 to run for state attorney general (this time, with the endorsement of the Conservative Party). She was defeated in that race by Andrew Cuomo. Most Conservative Party state and county leaders supported John Spencer, former mayor of Yonkers, New York. While Spencer was nominated for U.S. Senate by the Republican and Conservative Parties, he was defeated by Clinton in the general election.
  In the 2006 race for governor, Conservative Party Chairman Michael Long endorsed John Faso, the former Assembly Minority Leader and Republican State Comptroller nominee in 2002. Former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld also sought the Republican nod, but received lukewarm support from the Conservative Party due to his support of abortion and same-sex marriage; Weld considered running on the Libertarian Party ticket. Faso won the nomination at the Republican convention, defeating Weld, 61–39%. Following the convention, Weld withdrew from the race as senior party officials (including state Republican chairman Stephen Minarik, who endorsed Weld) urged party unity. In the general election, Faso was the nominee of both the Republican and Conservative parties, but was defeated by Eliot Spitzer. 
  The Conservative Party nominated Republican candidates John McCain and Sarah Palin for president and vice president in the 2008 election, which was won by Democrat Barack Obama. The graph shows how that ticket performed throughout the state.
  The Conservative Party nominated Doug Hoffman for the 2009 special congressional election in the 23rd congressional district, an election won by the Democratic nominee, Bill Owens. The Conservative Party chose Hoffman, a fiscal and social conservative, in reaction to the Republican Party's nomination of pro-choice, pro-same-sex-marriage, pro-union Assemblymember Dede Scozzafava, who Chairman Mike Long declared to be a "nice lady who is too liberal."  On October 31, 2009, Dede Scozzafava suspended her campaign, leading prominent Republicans such as national chairman Michael Steele to endorse Hoffman.  The final election results showed that Owens prevailed over Hoffman by a margin of 48.3% to 46%. According to one commentator, "tea party conservatives see the GOP loss as a victory for conservativism over mere political party loyalty. They’re describing the defeat as a warning shot fired in defense of principle." In addition, elected officials and observers opined that the congressional race affected the New York State Senate's December 2, 2009 vote against same-sex marriage legislation.
caption: 2009 special election results, New York's 23rd congressional district