Conservative Party candidate, and former GOP favorite, Rick Lazio will no longer be on the ballot this November.

Lazio made the announcement from the Sheraton in Midtown today.

“I ran for office to combat the Albany establishment, to govern, and to turn this state around,” said Lazio. “And although I’d like to think I could do what Jim Buckley did 40 years ago in running on the Conservative line, and while my heart beckons me forward, my head tells me that my continued presence on the Conservative Party line would simply lead to the election of Andrew Cuomo and the continuation of an entrenched political machine. I do not want to be responsible for that and that will not be acceptable.”

Despite his attack on Cuomo, Lazio would not endorse Paladino at this time, and took a jab at him for his negative rhetoric.

“I expect to push these candidates to do better than they’re doing right now,” said Lazio. “I look at where we are right now and I get the anger thing, but nobody’s going to have a job because of a slur or because somebody’s called a name.”

The former congressman lost badly to Carl Paladino in the GOP primary earlier this month.

Many Republicans had been calling on Lazio to drop his campaign, saying it would hurt Paladino’s chances of beating Andrew Cuomo.

As recently as last week, Lazio was dismissing those requests.

The Conservative Party has until tomorrow to decide whether to endorse Paladino. The party needs a candidate who can get 50,000 votes in the November elections in order for the party to remain viable.

(Source: NY1)