R.A. Dillon, a journalist who writes for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, breaks the news on his blog:
Jake Metcalfe is reportedly going to announce
tonighttomorrow that he’s dropping out of the race for the U.S. House of Representatives.Metcalfe has been under pressure to drop out since his political adviser was linked to websites attacking fellow Democratic candidate Ethan Berkowitz. The adviser, Bill Scannell, resigned last week but never admitted guilt and the websites have remained online.
The controversy over the websites damaged Metcalfe’s reputation, but the real campaign killer was his inability to raise the kind of money necessary to be considered a serious contender. Metcalfe raised less than $50,000 in the first quarter.
Update: KTUU confirms it. An unfortunate end to a campaign that didn’t have to go down the kind of road that it apparently chose to. This race now moves to a two-way primary between ’06 candidate Diane Benson and former state House Minority Leader Ethan Berkowitz.
This is a good thing, right? He ran a Clinton-style campaign then, and now is out. Paving the way for an easier primary between two better candidates, especially Mr. Berkowitz. Now if we could just get Ms. Benson to drop. haha