Ron Paul is not leaving the race just yet.
But he is going to drastically scale back his national campaign because his congressional seat is now in jeopardy.
In a statement released he said
Quote:
Let me tell you my thoughts. With Romney gone, the chances of a brokered convention are nearly zero. But that does not affect my determination to fight on, in every caucus and primary remaining, and at the convention for our ideas, with just as many delegates as I can get. But with so many primaries and caucuses now over, we do not now need so big a national campaign staff, and so I am making it leaner and tighter. Of course, I am committed to fighting for our ideas within the Republican party, so there will be no third party run. I do not denigrate third parties -- just the opposite, and I have long worked to remove the ballot-access restrictions on them. But I am a Republican, and I will remain a Republican.
I also have another priority. I have constituents in my home district that I must serve. I cannot and will not let them down. And I have another battle I must face here as well. If I were to lose the primary for my congressional seat, all our opponents would react with glee, and pretend it was a rejection of our ideas. I cannot and will not let that happen.
Ron Paul 2008: Message from Ron
The problem has been that many of his constituents were not aware of his polices until the national campaign exposed them in detail ;and many of his constituents do not like what they have seen.
His primary challenger is Chris Peden, a Friendswood city councilor who has touted his conservative credentials.
The Politico's Jonathan Martin reported
Quote:
Same as Kucinich, Paul has seen a real primary threat emerge back home. In both cases... the challengers have made the case that the local congressman is gallivanting around the country on a quixotic quest, has lost touch with the folks back home and has taken stances out of line with the district.
Quote:
Galveston County Republican Chairman Kerry Neves said that, because of the national attention Paul's presidential campaign has received, many voters unfamiliar with his anti-Iraq war stance and harsh criticism toward President Bush have taken a second look at their congressman.
“The more the voters down here find out about Ron Paul, the more they realize he is simply not a conservative, and the less they like him,” said Peden spokesman Dallas Frohrib.
The good news for Paul of course is that he can transfer his large war chest of contributions from his Presidential campaign to his local one. That gives him a tremendous advantage .
Paul has already indicated that he is not interested in an independent run for the Presidency. So the question remains... what will the Ronulans do in the general election ?
