Seeking to put to rest rumors that his support of Doug Hoffman might be wavering, state Conservative Party Chairman Mike Long sent a memo today to NY-23 county leaders and committee members seeking to tie Hoffman’s GOP primary opponent, Matt Doheny, to the woman he forced out of last year’s special election, Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava.

That is, of course, just about the worst insult political Long could hurl in this district, and one Hoffman himself has been lodging in his fundraising appeals.

In the memo, Long calls Hoffman a “dyed-in-the-wool conservative who agrees with the Conservative Party on the issues” and “exposed Dede Scozzafava for what she is: A liberal whose beliefs are more in tune with the far left wing of the Democratic Party.”

Long notes Doheny called Scozzafava “terrific” in a July 23, 2009 Watertown Times article and pledged to do “everything I can for her and more.” He subsequently contributed $2,400 to Scozzafava’s campaign – the maximum allowed by law.

“If Matt Doheny was a true conservative he would have kept his checkbook closed!” Long wrote. “So that leave(s) two options as to his thinking: Either it was a cynical attempt to curry favor with the Republican bosses or, in fact, he is a liberal just like Dede Scozzafava.”

Doheny, who made his debut at the conservative Monday Meeting in NYC last night (Long was in attendance, I’m told), has been gaining steam of late, and was scheduled to meet yesterday in Washington, D.C. with leaders of the Club for Growth, which played a key role in helping Hoffman last fall.

This, coupled with Hoffman’s anemic fundraising in the last quarter, have caused some GOP leaders to wonder of late whether he really has the fire in the belly needed for a re-match with Democratic Rep. Bill Owens.

Clearly, Long hasn’t changed his mind.

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