My fellow Floridians, I am officially announcing that I am ending my run for Congress at this time.  The truth is that I have no chance of beating the incumbent.  Elections should be all about who gets the most votes, but there are a lot more complex factors behind running a successful campaign, the least of which is money.  There are cases of candidates winning elections having collected fewer donations than their opponent, but they still raised a lot of money.

What typically happens is that the GOP has "their candidate" who gets the full support of the Party as far as fund raising and other resources.  If you aren't "their candidate" and it looks like you might beat them in the primary, they will suddenly pour a lot of money into their campaign and use every other trick in the book to ensure that you lose.

I do plan to run in the future.  My plan for this future campaign is to be in a financial position to fund my own campaign without donations from sources that potentially will expect you to push their agenda, even if it conflicts with your own agenda.  Lobbyists are very powerful and if you take their money they will ensure your success or drown you based on how well you support their efforts.  Special interest groups will often write their own bills and expect you to push it through as the sponsor.  I want to ensure I am free from any of that outside influence.

Original source can be found here.