Boles drops out of GOP runoff for Senate seat, endorses Taylor

Ray Boles dropped out of the runoff for state Senate District 30 on Tuesday and endorsed Bryan Taylor, who finished ahead of two other Republicans in the primary, but did not have a majority of the votes.
Taylor, former policy director for Gov. Bob Riley, will face longtime Democratic state Sen. Wendell Mitchell in the November general election.
Boles' move allows Taylor to save his resources for the general election.
The third place finisher in the race, Ken Barnett, previously endorsed Taylor, who was 130 votes short of winning the primary without a runoff.
Boles said, after considering his options, he wanted to avoid a costly, lengthy and unnecessary runoff.
"I got into this race for one reason: We need to elect someone to the state Senate who will look out for the people and not the politicians," Boles said. "I've gotten to know Bryan pretty well over the last six weeks, and I can tell you that's why he's running too. The people of District 30 deserve their vote back, and I'm supporting Bryan Taylor so we can finally win it back once and for all."
Taylor said the race to bring conservative leadership to the Senate started Tuesday.
"We'll never change the Legislature until we change who we send to the Legislature," he said.

-- posted by Sebastian Kitchen