Conservative Doug Hoffman forces GOP choice out of Tuesday's House race in N.Y.

October 31, 2009

Under pressure from conservative forces within her own party, Dede Scozzafava, the regular Republican nominee in the interim House race for New York's 23d District, suddenly withdrew from the race today.

Though endorsed by the Republican National Committee and big GOP establishment names like ex-House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Scozzafava had fallen to third place in polls of the upstate longtime Republican district next to the Canadian border.

Her retreat came in the face of a vigorous campaign by Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman, who was backed by Sarah Palin, Dick Armey and Fred Thompson, among others.

Her surprise move sets up a two-man showdown in just 72 hours between Hoffman and Democrat Bill Owens in a slick attempt by Obama White House strategists to add another seat to their party's overwhelming House majority.

The president had appointed the Republican incumbent, John McHugh, as secretary of the Army, hoping to use a special election and the president's 52% popularity there last fall to break the GOP's historic hold on the district that runs back to the 19th century. the rest