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Baker out of ag race

Posted Feb 5, 2010 by William March

Updated Feb 5, 2010 at 04:21 PM

State Sen. Carey Baker, who had sought to mount a conservative challenge to U.S. Rep. Adam Putnam in the GOP primary for state agriculture commissioner, has announced he’s dropping out of the race.

In a letter to supporters, Baker said, “As with any campaign, you have to achieve certain objectives to set yourself up for victory. I had to prepare myself to wage a full-scale campaign that would give Floridians a chance to see what I had to offer them if elected Commissioner of Agriculture. This would not be an easy task in a big state like ours, but nothing ever worth pursuing is easy.

“Unfortunately, I was unable to meet those goals.”

Baker had raised just under $500,000 in his campaign, less than half Putnam’s total.

He didn’t mention Putnam in his letter of withdrawal.

Baker has been running for the agriculture job since June, 2007, when it wasn’t known that Putnam would be a candidate.

Putnam filed in February, 2009, after a surprise announcement that he would leave his congressional seat.