JAY ROOT

Associated Press Writer



AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Democratic candidate Tom Schieffer dropped out of the Texas governor's race Monday, potentially leaving an opening for Houston Mayor Bill White in the 2010 gubernatorial primary.



Schieffer, a former state lawmaker who served as ambassador to Japan and Australia under Republican President George W. Bush, told reporters he couldn't raise enough money to run for statewide office. He said he decided to withdraw after meeting with White over the weekend in Houston.



White is currently running for the U.S. Senate, but he hasn't ruled out switching to the governor's race. He was scheduled to speak to reporters at Houston City Hall Monday afternoon. Schieffer said White would be a "credible alternative" against the Republicans and urged other Democrats running for governor to get behind the Houston mayor.



"I am announcing today that I will no longer be a candidate for governor," Schieffer said. "I hope my actions will be a catalyst for others to reassess their intentions and to join me in supporting Mayor White for governor."



Schieffer had pulled in high-profile endorsements and was seen as the establishment Democratic candidate. But Democratic activists questioned his business and political ties to Bush, and as of July, he had less than a half million dollars in the bank, state records show.



"I frankly found it difficult to raise money," Schieffer said. "I just couldn't convince enough people that I could win." He said he had no plans to run for any other state office, nor many worries about how to dispose of what remains in his campaign fund.



"I've pretty well spent it," he said.



Schieffer, who was business partners with Bush before joining his administration as a diplomat, acknowledged that some Democrats had heartburn over his tight relationship with the former Republican president, but he downplayed the importance of it.



"I know there are a lot of people, or some people, that really have a visceral hatred for George Bush, and I'm sorry that they do," Schieffer said. "I didn't find it in the end a great impediment."



White's fundraising prowess and popularity in Houston could give him a leg up in a Democratic race that includes wealthy Houston hair care executive Farouk Shami, humorist Kinky Friedman and rancher Hank Gilbert. Shami recently said he would spend $10 million of his own money in pursuit of the Democratic nomination.



White, in an interview with the AP on Friday, acknowledged all the political chatter about a possible switch to the governor's race.



"Every day, people ask me about the governor's race and the pace has been increasing since it looks as though Rick Perry will be the Republican nominee. "I'm only running for one thing at a time, and that's the Senate."



But White is running for a Senate seat that isn't open yet. U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison had planned to leave the Senate this year to pursue the Republican nomination for governor, but this month changed her mind and said she would stay in Washington until after the March primary — weeks after the candidates' filing deadline for her seat.



White, a wealthy energy executive and former deputy secretary of energy in the Bill Clinton administration, had raised more than $6 million for a Senate run as of Sept. 30. Of that, White chipped in $1.3 million himself, according to Federal Election Commission records. The data shows he began October with $4.2 million in the bank.

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