Munger out: and the weeding out begins

From the Tucson Citizen -

(PHOENIX, AZ) June 1, 2010 – Republican Gubernatorial candidate John Munger released the following statement today:

“The Supreme Court’s decision to leave in place the “matching funds” provision of Arizona’s so-called Clean Elections law presents an insurmountable obstacle to my
campaign for Governor. As I have previously stated publicly and in legal
filings, these dollar-for-dollar taxpayer matching funds create an unequal playing field by discouraging financial contributions to traditionally-funded candidates.

Now, the reccnt court ruling upholding the matching funds provision of Clean Elections *may* have played a part in Munger's withdrawal, but that may just be a convenient excuse that will be swallowed whole by the average Republican.

More likely, he realized that he isn't making any headway among Republican primary voters, and isn't in a position to do so - Jan Brewer may be an unelected incumbent, but she is still the incumbent with an incumbent's stage and as much money as Munger has, it's nothing compared to what Buz Mills has spent and is willing to spend.

Look for few, if any, other significant withdrawals at this point. For most of the candidates, the heavy lifting part of the primary campaign, getting organized enough to gather the sigs to get on the ballot, is over. Perhaps in the U.S. Senate races, where Deakin (R) is getting lost among the clutter of the McCain/Hayworth tiff, and one of the four Ds may fall off after a few weeks of trying to make headway (or maybe not, I'm not sure).