Breaking News From NY23

Stacy McCain has the headline of the week: NY23: SCOZZAFAVA QUITS!

I haven't seen this on Memeorandum yet but no one has kept a closer eye on this campaign than McCain:

Just confirmed that Republican candidate Dede Scozzafava has quit the race. Speaking to supporters, Scozzafava broke down in tears.

UPDATE: Scozzafava, the hand-picked choice of the New York state GOP in the key 23rd District special election, reportedly will throw her support to Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman.

Scozzafava's withdrawal came shortly after a new Siena College poll was released this morning, showing her in third place, with Hoffman neck-and-neck with Democrat Bill Owens.

UPDATE II: Steven Foley of 73Wire Campaign Trail is also on the story. Foley's crew is over at Starbucks, while I'm poaching the lobby computer at a hotel here in Lake Placid. I am the Poacher King.

My source called this morning to confirm the story while Foley was on the phone with his source. Ali Akbar has text of Dede Scozzafava's farewell.

UPDATE III: Linked at Hot Air where Ed Morrissey comments:
Scozzafava has seen her negatives explode, while her two opponents have only become more accepted as they became more well known. She has no chance of winning this race, and her withdrawal leaves Hoffman with the Republican vote whether she endorses him or not.

As poll after poll showed Hoffman either tied or ahead of Democratic rival Owens and Scozzafava slinking around in third place more and more Republican "names" jumped on the Hoffman bandwagon. As I said earlier, everyone loves a winner and everyone wants to be on the winning side. Scozzafava meet bus.

Whether it is Pete Sessions announcing that the party would welcome Hoffman with open arms or party chairman Michael Steele saying that a win for Hoffman is a win for the GOP, the fact is, the party flipped on Scozzafava. Note: what Steele should have said is that a win for Hoffman is a win for Conservatives and a lesson for the GOP. In any case, the NRCC decided that it didn't make sense to throw anymore money at the Scozzafava and now we are down to a two man race.

Undeniably, Conservatives have won. We have shown the Republican party that candidates such as Doug Hoffman in New York and Marco Rubio here in Florida are not only viable but the smart choice. When Republicans go to the polls we don't want to vote based on the Democratic candidate and the other Democratic candidate. If the voters see no difference between the candidates, the two party system loses, and the people will turn to a third party.

Republicans can only declare victory in NY23 if they walk away from the race much smarter than they walked in to it.

The Other McCain is updating the story constantly.

UPDATE:

Scozzafava’s withdrawal is on Memeorandum now. Others reporting on this are:

Newsbusters.Org
Sister Toldja
Left Coast Rebel
Jammiewearingfool
Legal Insurrection
Michelle Malkin

UPDATE II:

American Power is running the story:

Hoffman will pick up most of Scozzava's 20 percent in the Siena poll. This race is pretty much a done deal.

See Robert Stacy McCain for the details (he's been working this story like a mofo), "NY23: SCOZZAFAVA QUITS! UPDATE: New poll shows Hoffman in dead heat with Democrat Owens."Plus, from the Watertown Daily Times, "SCOZZAFAVA SUSPENDS 23RD CAMPAIGN," and Ed Morrissey, "Breaking: Scozzafava Quits After Siena Poll; Update: Hoffman Campaign Asking for Endorsement?" And, from Dana Loesch, "BREAKING: Dede Dumps Herself." Ha! Added: The best headline so far, "Radical Leftist GOP Candidate Dede Scozzafava Quits."

UPDATE III:

Just heard on Fox News, Steele is throwing the full support of the GOP and NRCC behind Doug Hoffman. Everyone loves a winner.

From Erik Erickson at RedState on Jeb Hensarling (R) Texas, who formerly endorsed Scozzafava, throwing his support to Hoffman:

I am endorsing Doug Hoffman’s candidacy in New York’s 23rd Congressional District. Doug will fight Speaker Pelosi’s efforts to takeover our health care system and work with us to reign-in the record spending, debts and deficits that President Obama and the Democrat Congress are piling onto the shoulders of our children and grandchildren.

I respect DeDe Scozzafava’s decision to leave the race and am gratified by it. When I agreed to support her, I didn’t think a third party candidate could win and I was wrong. Clearly, Hoffman’s conservative principles are far more in line with my own, and I welcome this opportunity to endorse him. I am excited about this opportunity and will welcome him to Congress.

I am glad to hear Hensarling say that Hoffman's conservative principles are are far closer to his own. That being the case, why didn't he back Hoffman to begin with? Are Marco Rubio's conservative principles also far closer to Hensarling's? If so, who is Hensarling backing in Florida? I have a problem with Republicans who only discover their principles after the fact.