Caller on Watts
The Corpus Christi Caller-Times caught up with Mikal Watts, publishing a long profile of the quit-before-he-could-be-defated Democratic Senate candidate.
Watts campaigned for five months, raising money and pledging $10 million of his own to the race. He had a staff of 17. Then, in September, he says, he started to doubt his decision. His youngest daughter cried that she never saw him. He prayed with his wife. He nearly bowed out that month, he says.
But what pushed him to actually do it was a trip to Washington, D.C., in early October, Watts said.
"I was pretty specifically aware that running for Senate would take me out of commission for the year, year and a half I was running," he said. "Myself and my family were ready to make that commitment. I went to Washington in October and really got a firsthand look at how senators live their lives and how little personal time they have. I reached the conclusion I wasn't sacrificing 16 months with my kids. I was in fact sacrificing the relationship for the duration."
So Watts made the announcement Oct. 22 that he was leaving the race, a move that surprised even some of his closest friends. He now says he plans to stay involved in politics through fundraising and contributing and to run for Senate again after his youngest graduates from high school in 10 years.
Clearly, it was just incidental to his decision to quit that he wasn't going to beat Rick Noriega.
Posted by Evan @ 02/04/08 11:43 PM
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