McKinnon won’t try to stay in CD2 race

Frank McKinnon won’t attempt to stay in the race to replace Steve Pearce in Congress after receiving only 1 percent of the vote at Saturday’s Democratic preprimary nominating convention.

“It looks like Pete Domenici and George W. Bush have succeeded in helping the nuclear industry buy all Democratic candidates for the congressional seat of New Mexico’s District 2,” McKinnon wrote in an e-mail and a posting on his campaign Web site. “Having Tom Udall as a senator may be enough to override any damage that Bill McCamley or Harry Teague may do. I hope so.”

McKinnon said his campaign Web site would be taken down in the next couple of weeks.

While McKinnon secured only 1 percent of the vote, McCamley won 49 percent, Teague won 36 percent and Al Kissling received about 13 percent of the vote. McKinnon would have had to submit the signatures of 1,184 registered Democrats living in the Second Congressional District to continue in the race.