Daniels: I'm Not Running
In a surprise middle-of-the-night announcement that rocks the 2012 Republican presidential field, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels said Sunday morning he is not running for president.
Daniels, in a statement sent to supporters shortly before 1 a.m., said he won't make a bid for president because of opposition from his family. Hesitance from his wife, Cheri, had long been seen as the primary reason the governor wouldn't enter the race. "In the end, I was able to resolve every competing consideration but one, but that, the interests and wishes of my family, is the most important consideration of all," Daniels said in a statement obtained by National Journal. "If I have disappointed you, I will always be sorry."
(PICTURES: Meet the 2012 GOP presidential hopefuls)
Daniels' decision will intensify concerns among many Republicans that the GOP field is too weak to defeat President Obama next year, and will increase speculation that another candidate, whether it's Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., or New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, will enter the race. According to a recent Gallup poll, no candidate has yet been able to muster the support of even a third of GOP voters.
(MORE: Republican reaction)
The chief beneficiary, at least initially, is likely Mitt Romney. Daniels' exit improves the former Massachusetts governor's changes of consolidating his base of upscale, college-educated Republicans. But it also could heighten competition for that constituency, which made up about half of the 2008 Republican primary electorate. There's now an opening for former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, on an exploratory visit to New Hampshire this weekend, but his departures from conservative orthodoxy on issues such as a carbon tax and immigration means he'll have to work harder to prove his conservative credentials.
(MORE: Who benefits?)
Daniels' announcement comes somewhat out of the blue. Although Daniels had said he would make a decision by the end of the month, there had been little speculation he would unveil his intentions imminently. His quiet, low-key announcement is a marked contrast from how another major contender, Mike Huckabee, told supporters he wasn't running: The former Arkansas governor revealed his decision on his Fox News TV show, after 36 hours of wall-to-wall media speculation about what whether he would enter the campaign.
Even many of his closest political advisers were kept in the dark until the surprise midnight e-mail. Christine Matthews, the governor's pollster, was in Indianapolis this weekend discussing Daniels' presidential campaign with Eric Holcomb, chairman of the state Republican Party and perhaps the governor's closest political adviser. Although neither Holcomb nor anyone else ever said explicitly Daniels would run, Matthews told National Journal she went to bed excited at the prospect he would do so.
"I woke up this morning, and I see the urgent e-mail, and I'm like, 'Noooo,'" Matthews said.
Despite her disappointment, the pollster said she was happy for the governor's family, who now get to avoid the scrutiny of a presidential campaign. In the end, they were the ones who made the decision, said Matthews.
"The only people who knew where that decision was going lived in Daniels home," she said.
Daniels' decision comes after he had made at least one move towards the presidential starting line, restarting a fundraising committee that is qualified to collect unlimited political donations. He had raked in more than $675,000 since the end of last year.
Republicans had been yearning for the governor to enter the race for months, seeing him as the potential candidate with the best background to talk credibly about bridging the country's burgeoning deficit. Daniels, once a senior adviser to President Ronald Reagan, had been President George W. Bush's first budget director, and he won widespread acclaim for denouncing the country's deficit as its new "red menace" during a February speech at CPAC in Washington.
Even the head of the Indiana Democratic Party saw fit to compliment Daniels, characterizing his decision as a blow to the GOP presidential field.
"We've disagreed with Mitch Daniels myriad times, but there's no doubt that his decision not to enter this race is a loss for Republicans," said Indiana Democratic Party Chairman Dan Parker. "Daniels would have brought a serious tone to a GOP field that's thus far been characterized by silliness and distraction."
In a statement provided to the Indianapolis Star, the Hoosier State chief executive said he was "deeply concerned" about the country for the first time in his life, and that the next two years would determine the country's future.
"Are we Americans still the kind of people who can successfully govern ourselves, discipline ourselves financially, put the future and our children's interests ahead of the present and our own?" he asked.
Decisions by potential top contenders for the GOP presidential nomination, such as former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, to forgo the contest leaves the Republicans in a similar position to the Democrats heading into the 1992 election -- with a field of candidates whom few in the party can imagine winning. However, that was the year that an obscure Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton managed to win the presidency and hold onto it for two terms.
-- Ron Brownstein contributed to this post
Updated at 9:33 a.m.
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