Dwyer to Quit Senate Race Soon

As I speculated Friday, the hot word on the street is that Don Dwyer will announce he is quitting his barely one-month old Senate campaign in order to run for re-election to the House of Delegates as soon as he returns from his two-week vacation in Europe.

Dwyer's decision is not all that surprising considering everything that has happened since his announcement. Speculation about other candidates jumping in the race. The fact that not one of the current candidates stepped aside to give Dwyer the free shot he probably thinks he deserves. All of it probably led to the decision that it was better for his political career to stay put than to run for the Senate. The decision that a cynic would say goes against the nature of his "citizen-politician" shtick.

Of course, you have to wonder how this makes Dwyer look? Dwyer must have realized that when the other four candidates did not part the seas for his anointing that he was not the slam dunk winner that he thought he was (and all four of them should be commended for not turning tail). In my eyes, this is just further proof that Don Dwyer is out for nobody but Don Dwyer. He had an opportunity to take a risk, and at the end of the day he did not have the heart to make the effort; he took the easy way out. Now, Dwyer looks weak and vulnerable not only in the General Election, but the primary as well in the face of several strong candidates.

I guess that with Dwyer quitting, the door remains open for John Leopold to abandon his current campaign in order to run for the State Senate.