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Wednesday, April 26, 2006

RI-Sen: Matt Brown Dropping Out?

Posted by DavidNYC

A blog called Rhode Island's Future is reporting that Matt Brown will drop out of the senate race today. Can anyone confirm this? Brown's having a press conference at 3:30pm, so I gather we'll know soon.

UPDATE: Brown has indeed dropped out. He did the right thing and immediately endorsed fellow Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse. I think this was probably the right move for Brown - he was struggling for cash. And it's also probably a net-positive for the Democrats, as RI has a very late primary. Whitehouse does still have some token opposition, but now he can spend most of his time focusing on the general.

Posted at 03:08 PM in 2006 Elections - Senate, Rhode Island | Technorati

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Comments

so what happened?

Posted by: yomoma2424 at April 26, 2006 03:50 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

It's really hard to campaign when you're down to Pennacchio levels of cash on hand, even if your primary's not until September. He started off by laying off staff a week or two ago, right?

Look: he took a gamble -- frontload the spending to boost the name recognition (in a state where he already held elected statewide office), hoping it'd lead to more contributions. It didn't work out. Doesn't mean it still wasn't the optimal move from his perspective.

Posted by: Adam B at April 26, 2006 04:00 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

i think it would have increased his donations, but that campaign finance story came out at the exact wrong time so that it blunted any momentum that would have created

Posted by: yomoma2424 at April 26, 2006 04:31 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Indeed Whitehouse is only $61,330 behind Chafee in fundraising. Brown had raised a good chunk of change: at $1,492,871 himself. Or was it his own money he used??

To bad some of these funds didn't get to Whitehouse, whom will take on the republican in November. Always good to see our guys equal or slightly less then their opponents! Perhaps now Whitehouse will take the lead in the money race.

Posted by: Demrock6 at April 26, 2006 04:56 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

It was mainly the fundraising to-do that cost him. If that hadn't come out, his donations wouldn't have stopped coming in and it'd still be a tight race for the nomination.

Posted by: AnthonySF at April 26, 2006 06:00 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

I disagree, Anthony, if only because he still brought in 265K during the first quarter of the year, which was slightly higher than what he brought in during 4Q 2005.

Problem is that he spent 480K in the quarter, self-loaned the campaign 91K and raised his other debt by 82K.

Posted by: Adam B at April 26, 2006 06:22 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

As a volunteer with Carl Sheeler for US Senate, I find it funny that everyone has given the primary race to Whitehouse.

Whitehouse is a political insider, connected to special interest groups, politics as usual. The same old suit just a different year.

Although the special interest groups have been trying to ignore Carl sheeler, thinking he will go away remember one thing Rhode Island voters are know for not making up there minds until they reach the booth. In the end Carl will surprise many.

look at his site www.carlsheeler.com his billboard speaks for many Rhode islanders.

Posted by: Willy at May 13, 2006 04:47 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment