Last winter, when the St. Charles Central Committee was debating on whether to tap Tim Swope or Mindy Primm to run for the House seat Tom Dempsey had vacated in HD 18, they leaned toward Swope because they thought Primm, who is pro-choice, would be too radical for a district just teetering near the edge of turning blue.
They opted for Swope, the safe bet because he is a former Republican sheriff recently turned Democrat.
The downside of that choice, aside from running someone who finds it convenient to say he’s a Democrat, was that Swope wasn’t dependable. Time after time, even before the committee settled on him for the nomination, he had failed to show up at events he’d said he would attend, thus losing opportunities to network with people whose help in fundraising and campaigning would be valuable and necessary. In fact, one political insider took to undermining Swope, when party regulars complained about still another absence, by joking, “Oops, Swoped again.”
Nevertheless, he got the nod, and his campaign, if you could call it that, was as anemic as his performance last winter. He had raised just under $16,000 as of September 4th, and his idea of contacting voters was to call his buddies and ask for their votes.
So it’s not surprising that Swope, who had been working part time, is citing lack of time now that he’s taking a full time job and has decided to back out of the race altogether. Now that it’s too late for any other Democrat to have a shot at the seat.