|
|
||
Robinson quits 1st District race Date published: 3/30/2010
BY CHELYEN DAVIS
Democrat Scott Robinson has dropped out of the 1st District congressional race. In an e-mail to supporters yesterday, Robinson said he is "changing directions," due in part to the difficulty of building up a campaign right after retiring from the Army last fall. "The factors surrounding that short amount of time proved to be a daunting task," Robinson wrote. "That is why I will be changing directions and am putting aside my aspirations to serve in Congress for now." Robinson's campaign manager, Greg Richardson, did not say exactly why Robinson decided to end the campaign. But Robinson's opponent for the nomination, Krystal Ball, had a strong lead in convention delegate numbers. "The decision was that it was the right thing to do," Richardson said. "We could have continued down this path and we could have pushed and gone to the convention, there definitely was a lot of playing field in front of us. There are a lot of places where we felt we were very strong. But this is about doing the right thing." Robinson's decision leaves Ball as the presumptive Democratic nominee, although she'll still need to be officially nominated. The Democrats will still hold their caucuses and convention to nominate her. "We're really pleased. It's a testament to the strength of the team that we've put together and how capable they've been and the type of organizing we've been able to do," Ball said yesterday. Ball had begun running for the nomination a year ago, giving her several months' head start on Robinson. She has been doing well in recent Democratic caucuses, winning many more delegates than Robinson for the party's May nomination convention. After caucuses in York and Poquoson on Saturday, Ball had 71 delegates to Robinson's 23 delegates, with 29 uncommitted. Either candidate would have needed 101 of the 200 delegate votes to win the nomination. Ball said she will now turn her campaign focus more onto incumbent Rep. Rob Wittman, a Republican from Westmoreland County. Wittman also has a challenger from his own party, Catherine Crabill. That race will be decided in a primary in June. Chelyen Davis: 540/368-5028
1. Be respectful. No personal attacks.
|
|
|||||||||||||
