Manassas Journal Messenger | Pandak withdraws from race
Former Prince William County Attorney Sharon Pandak will not seek the Democratic nomination for attorney general, which voters will decide in a June 14 primary.
Pandak, who resigned from her job in August to seek the party’s bid, said yesterday that she dropped out of the race because of fund-raising pressures.
“After substantial thought, I determined that in order to meet the fund-raising goals, I would be spending the bulk of my time in the campaign on fund-raising and frankly, that was not something I had planned on doing,” said Pandak, who said she “preferred talking about issues.”
Pandak was Prince William’s county attorney for 15 years.
In June, Republicans and Democrats will hold primaries to pick their party’s candidates for lieutenant governor and attorney general.
Pandak was one of three Democrats vying for the party’s nomination. Her withdrawal leaves state Sens. R. Creigh Deeds of Bath and John S. Edwards of Roanoke in the race.
Deeds has $94,154 cash on hand. Edwards has $5,355. Both amounts are according to the July 15 financial reporting deadline. The next deadline is Jan. 1.
The Republican candidates for attorney general have made much more headway raising money for their campaigns.
As of July, Del. Robert F. McDonnell, R-84th, of Virginia Beach has raised $441,371. Republican Steve Baril has $412,617 in his campaign coffers. Baril is a lawyer from Richmond.
McDonnell has raised the most money of any statewide races for 2005 second only to governor candidates, who have both raised more than $3 million.
Staff writer Lillian Kafka contributed to this report.