Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter has decided to quit his long-shot GOP presidential bid because of poor fund-raising, campaign officials said Tuesday.
An announcement was planned for Wednesday in Philadelphia, said one campaign source. "He will leave," said another.Officials said the driving reason was inability to raise enough money for a viable race in the crowded primary field.
One official also said "the message that Specter was offering did not find a receptive Republican audience." Specter is leaving the race reluctantly.
Technically, he will be suspending his campaign so that he can collect about $1.2 million in federal matching funds to pay his bills, but effectively the race is over for the Pennsylvania senator who has never managed to rise above a few percentage points in opinion polls.
It was clear since April, when the first campaign finance report was filed, that "the objectives of fund-raising could not be met," one official said. Specter essentially decided to fold his campaign more than a week ago, but one source said he wavered on a final decision until Monday.
A withdrawal announcement would make Specter the second declared candidate to leave the Republican presidential contest. California Gov. Pete Wilson ended his bid in September.
Specter's aides had urged him to drop out after concluding that expected GOP moderate supporters and contributors were not coming aboard.