CPA Doug Hoffman, the Conservative Party nominee in the special election to replace former Rep. John McHugh (R-N.Y.), continues to gain momentum, picking up endorsements from the Club for Growth and former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) on Monday.

“After months of runaway spending, bailouts, and record deficits, the last thing we need in Congress is another rubber stamp for Nancy Pelosi and the liberal Democrats,— Club for Growth President Chris Chocola, a former Republican Congressman from Indiana, said in a statement. “Doug Hoffman is the only candidate in this race who will stand up for taxpayers and fight to protect our freedoms in Washington.—

Thompson, meanwhile, sent a letter to previous donors to FredPAC, his political action committee, urging them to support Hoffman’s campaign, calling it “an opportunity to send a message to Washington, to the Obama Administration and to the politicians who have made careers of ignoring the will of the people they represent. Running, as the Conservative Party candidate, in New York’s 23rd Congressional District, Doug Hoffman is doing just that.—

The two endorsements come as a blow to the Republican nominee in the three-way special election, state Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava, who continues to see support from conservatives erode. The National Republican Congressional Committee responded to the news Monday by issuing a news release with a blog posting from the Watertown Daily Times, suggesting that Hoffman, who competed against Scozzafava and others for the GOP nomination, initially offered to help her in the special election.

Lost in the internecine Republican warfare Monday was the fact that attorney Bill Owens, the Democratic nominee in the special election, began airing his second TV ad of the campaign. The ad pictures Owens behind the wheel of his car as upstate New York business leaders tout his record on job creation.