Well here’s a fresh dose of suck:
Businessman Jack McDonald (D) will drop out of the race against Rep. Mike McCaul (R-TX) today, robbing Dems of a wealthy recruit in the race against what could be a vulnerable GOPer.
McDonald, the former CEO of information technology firm Perficient Inc., will cite business reasons in a statement. The Nasdaq-listed company reported last month that its profits had plummeted by some 95% during the economic downturn.
McDonald stepped down as CEO in Sept. but remained on board as the company’s chair while he began his run for Congress.
It is a blow to Dems who had hoped to give McCaul a top-notch challenger. McDonald had raised a stunning $932K through the end of Sept., ending the quarter with $805K in the bank. McDonald is wealthy, but he lent his campaign just $26K, indicating he had real fundraising prowess.
This is both a surprise (McDonald only made his campaign official last week after months of “exploring”) and some pretty bad news to boot — it would have been good to keep the pressure up on McCaul, whose district tightened up to a 55-44 McCain district from a 67% Bush fiefdom in 2000.
Perhaps McDonald will hang on to his war chest for another run in 2012, but by then this district might be carved up in six different ways.
RaceTracker Wiki: TX-10
Well, I wasn’t expecting anything from this district anyway — McCaul won by a comfortable margin in 2008 despite the best possible climate for his opponent.