Mark Kleine withdraws from congressional race

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Mark Kleine is no longer a candidate for Congress.The Galesburg businessman first announced his withdrawal from the race in a letter to Republican county committee chairs and today is sending a letter to those who contributed to him.

Kleine says he’s also returning funds donated to him.

He announced in August he was running in part to combat “partisan fighting in Washington” and in his letter says that he’s learned “sacrificing one’s values and beliefs is expected to be a part of the process.”

He was confident in his chances to win but seems to indicate that “experts” were advising him to invest more money in his campaign than he felt comfortable with. He says “at what point do we say enough is enough.”

According to the letter he recently fired his campaign staff. He goes on to say “How many millions of dollars does it really take to run for office?”

Rep. Cheri Bustos and Kleine had raised a combined total in excess of $2 million as reported through the end of 2018, with about $500,000 of that being Kleine.

This leaves Bill Fawell as the presumptive Republican nominee to challenge Bustos in November 2018.
Kleine denied WGIL’s request for an interview.

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