Local Libertarian Ends Senate Campaign

Libertarian Daniel Fishman of Beverly announced Sunday that he is immediately ending his campaign for the open U.S. Senate seat from Massachusetts.

Fishman burst onto the politican scene last year as a candidate for the Sixth Congressional District.

In that election, Fishman received 197 votes, or 4.5 percent of the vote in Hamilton. In Wenham, Fishman received 93 votes, or 4 percent.

Some politiocal observers said that Fishman took votes away from the Republican candidate Richard Tisei, attracting votes from people that were more aligned with Tisei than U.S. Rep. John Tierney, the incumbent Democrat who was narrowly reelected.

Fishman said in an announcement Sunday that he will not be submitting signatures to the Secretary of State for placement on the ballot in advance of the April 3 deadline.

Fishman said when he first entered the campaign in early February there were no Republicans officially announced and the three most prominently mentioned Republicans had all removed their names as potential candidates.

"I was concerned that given the short period of time to gather signatures no Republican would be able to get on the ballot, and the Senator for Massachusetts would be chosen via the closed Democratic primary," he said in a release. “Fortunately in support of the democratic process, three Republicans did stand up to run and successfully made it onto the ballot. I would like to thank Dan Winslow, Gabriel Gomez and Michael Sullivan for undertaking this largely thankless task."

Fishman went on to say the support his campaign received has been 'buoying.'  

"In particular as my awareness grew of the burgeoning liberty movement in Massachusetts, I felt a tie back to the proud heritage of our state in leading on issues of Liberty," he said. "I was constantly approached by people in Massachusetts who thanked me for stating the obvious: Congress is completely broken. And it will not be fixed by electing the same sort of politicians to office."

Fishman said with the conclusion of this campaign he will return to his day job and consider options for 2014.

If Fishman had run for Senate, would you have voted for him? Was it a good decision for Fishman to drop out of the race? Tell us in the comments.