A new poll of the NY-23 special election, conducted by the conservative Neighborhood Research and commissioned by the Minuteman PAC -- which is supporting Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman -- finds Hoffman in first place, and the moderate Republican Dede Scozzafava in third.

The numbers: Hoffman 34.1%, Democrat Bill Owens 29.2%, and Scozzafava 13.9%, with a ±4.8% margin of error. Among definite voters, it's Hoffman 37.5%, Owens 28.4%, and Scozzafava 13.5%, with a ±5.6% margin of error.

Neighborhood Research head Rick Shaftan told TPM: "She's [Scozzafava] going to end up in single digits and Hoffman is going to top 50%."

This runs contrary to independent polls, which have put Owens in first, Scozzafava second, and Hoffman third, while it's consistent with a poll from the Club For Growth (which also supports Hoffman). Then again, special elections are notoriously difficult to poll, due to low turnout, so there's really no telling what's going to happen on election day next week.