October 26, 2011; Source: WATD | After a number of unhappy encounters with local media outlets, Alan Khazei, a founder of the nationally prominent service-oriented nonprofits City Year and Be the Change is electing to withdraw from the highly contested, high-stakes race for the senate seat currently occupied by Republican Scott Brown. This just about ensures that Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard Law School professor, will be the Democratic candidate to challenge Brown.

Although Khazei will not give a statement until later today, Scott Ferson, a spokesperson for the Khazei campaign, stated that Khazei did not see a path to victory: “The reality is that the dynamic of the race is very different than what he expected.”

Khazei had fallen under criticism by both major Boston newspapers for hiring his brother under contract in violation of Be the Change’s conflict of interest policies and for his own consulting contract with Be the Change once he had left to pursue the race as chronicled here.

Khazei had raised $1.3 million toward the campaign.—Ruth McCambridge