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The Conservative Party candidate who conceded a closely-watched upstate New York House race has formally repudiated that concession in a statement that suggests community-organizing group ACORN stole the election for his Democratic opponent.

Doug Hoffman first suggested he was "unconceding" earlier this week on Glenn Beck's radio show.

"Recent developments leave me to wonder who is scheming behind closed doors, twisting arms and stealing elections from the voters of NY-23," he writes in a message on his Web site titled "Stop Another Stolen Election." "I'm sure you are as dismayed as I am to learn of the mischief that took place in Oswego and neighboring counties. We know this would not be the first time for the ACORN faithful to tamper with democracy."

"ACORN and the unions did their best to try and sway the results to Obamacare supporter Bill Owens," he adds. Hoffman goes on to request donations to help force officials to keep a recanvassing effort going that he suggests will show he was the true winner of the contest.

Hoffman offers no specific evidence of malfeasance by ACORN, and a call to his spokesman, Rob Ryan, was not returned.

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Bertha Lewis, the chief executive of embattled community group ACORN, told reporters at the National Press Club today that her critics are engaged in "modern-day ACORN McCarthyism" born in part from the group's history of "going after the rich and the powerful," the New York Times reports.

While defiant, Lewis did acknowledge that her group had its problems: She said videos showing ACORN employees advising conservative activists posing as a pimp and prostitute "made my stomach turn," according to CNN. "It just made you sick," she added. The group has appointed an investigator to examine why the behavior took place.

But Lewis refused to make apologies for her 40-year-old organization, which she said wasn't going anywhere. Congress, she said, can't destroy the group by withholding federal funding: "We didn't have government funding for years," she said to illustrate that point, according to Politico. "We may not have government funding in the future."

ACORN, or the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, has been receiving about $2.5 million to $3 million each year from the federal government, Lewis said – only about 10 percent of its annual budget. The rest of its funding comes from membership dues and private donors.

The group had sometimes "aided and abetted our attackers," she added, pointing to mismanagement before her tenure began as well as the recent scandal. Lewis also defended the decision to sue the filmmakers behind the scandal for recording ACORN employees without permission, as well Andrew Breitbart, who posted the videos on his Web site.

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ACORN is suing the conservative activists behind the hidden-camera video showing ACORN employees giving advice on taxes the filmmakers, who were posing as a pimp and prostitute.

The suit centers on video taken in ACORN's Baltimore office, the Associated Press reports, and seeks millions of dollars in damages from the filmmakers as well as Andrew Breitbart, who posted the video and others online. It is grounded in the notion that both parties must consent to sound recordings in the state of Maryland.

ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis has said in the past that she thanks the filmmakers, James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles, because they have "done us a good service" by finding the organization's bad apples.

ACORN fired the two employees seen in the Baltimore video.

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It began, ridiculously enough, with two young conservatives dressed in "pimp" and "prostitute" costumes that looked like they had been picked up on the cheap for a Halloween party. And it could end with anti-poverty group ACORN, the scandal-prone longtime Republican target, seeing its government support evaporate.

ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, is finding itself under fire thanks to conservative activists James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles, who dressed in less-than-convincing outfits and headed to ACORN offices around the country with a hidden camera. What they found, in some locations, was ACORN workers who offered tips on how to hide money and falsify taxes for a prostitution operation.

ACORN hit back after the videos emerged, arguing that the clips were doctored and pointing out that the filmmakers were rebuffed in many of their attempts. (In Philadelphia, the group noted, ACORN workers called the police.) In the most recently-released video, ACORN said, the worker did not take the filmmakers seriously and "matched their false scenario with her own false scenarios." (Liberal group Media Matters suggested "journalistic malpractice" had been committed by Fox News in its coverage of the story.)

ACORN did acknowledge some wrongdoing, however, and fired employees who earnestly gave advice to the filmmakers. It also announced an independent investigation Wednesday. But the group vowed to sue the filmmakers, the Web sites where the video was posted, and Fox News, which repeatedly showed the clips, arguing that the undercover filming was illegal in some locations.

The ACORN story might have stayed relatively below the radar had it not been for the efforts of conservative media, which pushed the story hard. Conservative talk radio, Fox News personalities like Glenn Beck, and right-leaning Web sites like the Drudge Report and the new Big Government aggressively promoted each video, the leaked of which over a series of days kept ACORN in the headlines.

Conservatives, such as Beck, have repeatedly complained that the mainstream media, by contrast, has ignored the story, including in comments on this site. Conservative commentator Michelle Malkin, Politico notes, pointed her audience to a radio clip of ABC "World News" anchor Charles Gibson acknowledging that he hadn't heard about the tapes.

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Politics Today is CBSNews.com's inside look at the key stories driving the day in politics, written by CBS News Political Director Steve Chaggaris:

** A "bipartisan" bill angers the left and the right…

** The president goes on a media blitz…

** Questions of racism keep the Joe Wilson controversy alive…

HEALTH CARE: Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., unveils his committee's long-awaited "bipartisan" health care reform proposal today at Noon ET. There's only one problem, however: there's no "bi" in "bipartisan." And it's not just Republicans who have issues with the proposal; there are plenty of Democrats who have voiced their concerns as well.

"Senate Democrats' most concerted quest for a bipartisan compromise on healthcare collapsed Tuesday as finance committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) announced he would move ahead with his long-delayed proposals without any guarantee of Republican support," report the Los Angeles Times' Janet Hook and Peter Nicholas.

"Baucus also took a blow from his own party's left, as a senior Senate Democrat declared that too many concessions had been made and that he would not support the emerging bill because it did not include a public insurance option.

"'I cannot agree with [Baucus] on this bill,' said Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), a senior finance committee member who has been briefed on the proposal. 'There is no way, in its present form, that I will vote for it.'..

"After the negotiations broke down, Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the senior Republican on the finance committee, accused Senate Democratic leaders of lacking a commitment to bipartisanship.

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Hotsheet reported two weeks ago that Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann is refusing to fill out 2010 census forms beyond the number of people in the household. "The Constitution doesn't require any information beyond that," she said.

Bachmann, a Republican, complained the forms are "very intricate" and "very personal." She also expressed concern about the possible involvement of the liberal community group ACORN, which has been accused of voter registration fraud, in data collection.

Now three House Republicans on the panel that oversees the Census Bureau are urging Bachmann to rethink her position.

"Every elected representative in this country should feel a responsibility to encourage full participation in the census," they said in a statement. "To do otherwise is to advocate for a smaller share of federal funding for our constituents. Boycotting the constitutionally-mandated census is illogical, illegal and not in the best interest of our country."

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Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann told the Washington Times that she and her family will not be fully filling out the 2010 census forms.

Bachmann, a Republican, said her family will only be indicating the number of people in the household, because "the Constitution doesn't require any information beyond that."

Bachmann believes the upcoming census to be "very intricate" and "very personal" and expresses concerns about ACORN's involvement in the data collection. The community organizing program came under scrunity after charges of voter registration fraud during the 2008 presidential elections.

"I think what the threat of ACORN would be deluding the ballot box and the effectiveness of our vote," she said. "They will be in charge of going door to door and collecting data from the American public, this is very concerning."

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