The upcoming municipal election has seen an onslaught of mayoral and council candidates step forward, but as of Thursday there is one less contender in the race.
Gary Beyer announced on his campaign website that he will be bowing out of the race after seeing many other capable candidates step forward.
“The last thing I want to do is to split the vote of the opposition in such a way that Mayor Helps ends up getting re-elected with only a small plurality of votes,” Beyer said in a statement, alluding to a 1990 election where David Turner was elected as mayor with 33.9 per cent of the votes.
“In an effort to ensure that this does not happen again in October, I am announcing today that I am withdrawing my candidacy for Mayor.”
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Beyer urged other candidates to carefully weigh their options to ensure that those who do not support Mayor Lisa Helps have a clear choice come election day.
He noted that at this point, he does not support any other candidate in particular.
“I think it is too early yet to endorse any one candidate,” Beyer said. “But I will be watching the performance and platforms of the candidates in the coming weeks and, before election day, will announce where I am going to place the X on my ballot.”
To see the full statement, you can visit garybeyer.com