The news comes after a new Siena Poll out today shows Dede Scozzafava badly trailing Democrat Bill Owens and Conservative Doug Hoffman, who are locked in a dead heat.
Winners: Sarah Palin, Tim Pawlenty and Club for Growth
Losers: Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney
We'll kick this around on powerhouse roundtable tomorrow with George Will, Al Sharpton, DeeDee Myers, Ed Gillespie and Ron Brownstein.
UPDATE: My colleague, ABC News' David Chalian, has more on what this shake up means for NY-23:
The Republican nominee for Congress in the high profile upstate special House race ended her candidacy today.
"It is increasingly clear that pressure is mounting on many of my supporters to shift their support. Consequently, I hereby release those individuals who have endorsed and supported my campaign to transfer their support as they see fit to do so. I am and have always been a proud Republican. It is my hope that with my actions today, my party will emerge stronger," Assemblywoman DeDe Scozzafava wrote in the Watertown Daily Times.
Obviously, this will shake things up a bit.
Scozzafava's name is still on the ballot, but she was bleeding support and releases all of her supporters to support other candidates. She doesn't endorse either of her opponents in her statement.
A new Siena Research Institute poll out this morning showed the battle had become a two man race with Scozzafava fading.
Democrat Owens was at 36 percent, Conservative Hoffman at 35, and Scozzafava at 20 percent.
"In recent days, polls have indicated that my chances of winning this election are not as strong as we would like them to be. The reality that I've come to accept is that in today's political arena, you must be able to back up your message with money—and as I've been outspent on both sides, I've been unable to effectively address many of the charges that have been made about my record," wrote Scozzafava.
This is clearly a huge victory for the lead conservative group bankrolling Hoffman's ads - Club for Growth. They have been at the forefront of the push to dispel moderates from the Republican ranks and support more purely conservative candidates. (To say nothing of the Palin victory over Gingrich in the endorsement battle. (continues here)
1 comment:
I was hoping she would back out and the best part is that it's a win for Palin. This is going to really piss off the Obots. I'm also hoping it will wake up the GOP to the popularity of Sarah Palin. They made a big mistake by dissing her during McCain's run for President. If not for her, no one would have shown up to his campaign stops. They should have been there to defend her when she was being attacked. McCain kept his mouth shut, too. He really pissed me off.
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