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Will, the Conservative Party isn't new. It's been around in NY for a looooooooong time. There used to be a Liberal Party, too, but they sort of fell apart after falling below a vote threshold and now the former head of the party is (I think) in jail for some sort of corruption (I wonder why they haven't caught the Conservative guy yet, either). Basically, the two minor parties were vehicles for patronage, but they also gave a valuable outlet for people who lost D or R primaries (mainly D) but thought they could win general elections (and sometimes did - John Lindsay won his second term as mayor running as a Liberal). The use of the minor party for doctrinal purity is not standard, and although it's not new, the NY-23 race is significant because it signals a rebellion in the right-wing grass roots. (That prob wouldn't happen in the Dem party in NY because it is already pretty far left, and the main further left party is the Working Families Party, which is basically ACORN's political arm.)
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