'It Looks Like It's Over' for Hoffman in NY-23

SARANAC LAKE—It looks like Doug Hoffman came up short in his bid for Congress.

With a majority of precincts reporting, the Democratic Party's Bill Owens maintained a lead of over 3,000 votes.

"It looks like it's over. Democrats were able to deliver St. Lawrence big. Jefferson County was considered the bellwether and it went for Owens, and the strong counties for Hoffman weren't all that strong: Oswego, Madison and Oneida," said Mayor Jeff Graham, the mayor of Watertown. A good compilation is here. "I think what also happened is once she got out, coming off line D it became increasingly difficult to compete in the upper forties. To get 45 percent was good but there's an awful lot of straight line party voters out there."

In the end, the weight of Democratic get-out-the-vote efforts was enough. No official concession is expected; with over 10,000 paper ballots locked up under court order, the election will not be officially called for quite some time.

UPDATE: Representative Steve Israel, a top Democratic campaign official, just told Liz Owens won.