Vilsack To End Presidential Bid
Friday, Feb. 23, 2007 By AP/MIKE GLOVER
Democrat Tom Vilsack is abandoning his bid for the presidency after struggling against better-known, better-financed rivals, two officials told The Associated Press on Friday.
Vilsack was scheduled to make a formal announcement later in the day. The officials spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity to avoid pre-empting the former Iowa governor's statement.
Vilsack left office in January and traveled through states holding early tests of strength, but he attracted neither the attention nor the campaign cash of his top tier rivals — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Sen. Barack Obama and John Edwards.
In the most recent financial documents, Vilsack reported raising more than $1.1 million in the last seven weeks of 2006 but only had around $396,000 cash in the bank. Some campaign finance experts contend the candidates will need $20 million by June 2007.
Vilsack's decision still leaves a crowded field of eight Democrats dominated by Clinton, Obama and Edwards.
His withdrawal does not mean he won't still be an important figure in the presidential race. His former rivals will undoubtedly seek his endorsement and help to win Iowa and he is likely to be considered for the vice presidential nomination. Other campaigns immediately began to seek out Vilsack's well-respected staff, hoping to pick up talented political operatives with experience in the first nominating state.
Vilsack was the first Democrat to formally enter the 2008 race when he announced his candidacy in November. He conceded at the time that he faced a difficult run.
Trying to counter perceptions that as one of the least known of the prospective candidates he was too much of an underdog to succeed, Vilsack said in a campaign video: "I've never started a race that I've been expected to win, and I've never lost."
As governor of Iowa, Vilsack, 55, had carved out a reputation as a centrist balancing his state's budget and refusing to raise taxes, while emphasizing increased spending on such priorities as education, health care and higher wages. Until recently he chaired the Democratic Leadership Council, the party's signature centrist group.
Vilsack initially made the focus of his long-shot campaign a plan to end U.S dependence on foreign oil by promoting alternative energy sources. "Energy security will revitalize rural America, re-establish our moral leadership on global warming and climate security, and eliminate our addiction to foreign oil," Vilsack, a prominent proponent of ethanol, biodiesel and wind power, said at the time.
More recently, Vilsack has been among the more aggressive Democratic candidates in his call to bring U.S. troops home from Iraq, calling for Congress to cut off funding.
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