Republican Chris Paige has dropped his bid to battle Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta in the 10^th District primary, citing family and health issues.

Paige, an upstart challenger to the well-known Barletta, also faced a ballot challenge from the mayor. He announced his withdrawal on his Web site over the weekend.

The news is good for Barletta. Although Paige was a heavy underdog, he had vowed to run an aggressive, critical campaign against the three-time congressional candidate. Barletta now has a free pass to the general election while Democratic incumbent Paul Kanjorski must fend off a challenge from Lackawanna County Commissioner Corey O’Brien.

Tags: Lou Barletta, Lou Barletta for congress

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010 at 9:09 am and is filed under Front Page Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.