NY 23

Today's announcement by the Republican candidate suspending her campaign in the 23rd district of NY was simply a bow to her inevitable loss. Still, it is strange for her to suspend without endorsing the Conservative candidate, Hoffman. There are no polss telling us what effect her move will have, but I believe that the likely result is that GOP party stalwarts will now have the choice of four courses of action: voting for Scozzafava even though she has withdrawn, not voting, voting for the Democrat, or voting for the Conservative who has been endorsed by many national GOP figures. My guess is that the Conservative is likely to get a substantial boost from this move. If he gets half of Scozzafava's voters and 20% still vote for her, it should provide enough of a boost for the Conservative to win (assuming of course, that the Democrats do not manage to steal the election).