Tommy Thompson Drops Out Of GOP Race

(CBS/AP)  Former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson is dropping out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination, a campaign official said Sunday.

His campaign released a statement saying the Republican is leaving the campaign trail several hours after WITI-TV in Milwaukee reported that Thompson told one of its reporters he was withdrawing.

The campaign statement said Thompson intends to take sometime off before returning to the private sector and his nonprofit work.

It said the 65-year-old says he's comforted by the fact that he thinks he made a difference for people during his campaign.

He finished sixth among eleven candidates in this weekend's GOP straw poll in Iowa. He had said before the Iowa event that he would drop out of the race unless he finished first or second.

The statement didn't say whether he would endorse another candidate.

A veteran of four successful campaigns for governor of Wisconsin, Thompson had a good track record on winning elections.

He quit during his fourth term as governor to serve as President Bush's secretary of Health and Human Services from 2001 to the end of 2004.

He was first elected in 1966 at age 24 to the Wisconsin State Assembly, not long after he graduated from the University of Wisconsin. Twenty years later, he won his first term as governor.

As governor, he earned a national reputation for policies that moved many Wisconsin families from welfare to work, gave minority families more options on where they could send children to school by giving religious and private schools up to $5,000 per student and expanded health care to include thousands of the working poor who had not previously qualified for current government programs. He pushed for changes in welfare laws before President Clinton and Congress took up the issue on the national level.

Critics, however, charged the primary aim of Thompson's welfare reforms was merely to get people off Wisconsin's rolls and not necessarily to lift families out of poverty

Born in Elroy, Wis., Thompson boasted about his small-town background. His father ran a gas station and a country grocery store.

Thompson's time heading the Department of Health and Human Services was marked by anthrax attacks, a flu vaccine shortage and passage of the Medicare prescription law. Thompson was a key player in President Bush's AIDS initiative, a commitment of $15 billion over five years for treatment and prevention of the disease that was rapidly spreading overseas. Thompson traveled frequently to Africa during his Cabinet service.

A fan of Milwaukee-based Harley-Davidson, Thompson has long taken an annual motorcycle trip with lawmakers, motorcycle enthusiasts and campaign supporters.

He touted his background as a Midwest governor and former HHS secretary as valuable credentials for a presidential candidate.

[jdubs63]

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[wfbdem]

Shhhh....
You can almost hear the national muttering a collective: "who?".

I hope he does not come back to Wisconsin. He screwed our state 3 ways from Tuesday.

[fredgrad2000]

"Business as usual...it is too bad that the Republicans - down to the candidates themselves - interpret the amount of money you possess as being the most significant signpost to your overall worth as a human being."

Who raised $27m and $31.5m last quarter? Who's being bought? Oh yeah, Hil and Obama...

Be real, its not just the GOP that gets bought and paid for...most of Hil's donors were Bush donors in 2004 FYI

[fryedbread]

Who is James K. Polk?

[roger_inkart]

Oh Tommy, we hardly knew ye.

Or some of us did, which is why you never stood a chance. Holdovers from the Bush administration are pretty much radioactive.

[nolalou]

Stokeybob, you said "the straw poll seemed to cut through some of the hype created by the media.". So instead we have hype created by the Republican party, and just reported on by the media. The Iowa straw poll is just fund raising event, and publicity stunt. It means nothing, especially since Rudy Guilliani and McCain didn't participate. It doesn't select delegates to the Republican convention.. it's just designed to get publicity for whatever candidate chooses to spend the most $$$.

[missingamerica]

That straw poll is supposedly more of an open air vote buying gig than anything else; what was it Romney was reported to have spent per vote he received? In excess of $400?

Business as usual...it is too bad that the Republicans - down to the candidates themselves - interpret the amount of money you possess as being the most significant signpost to your overall worth as a human being.

They couldn't be more wrong.

[keithle1]

That sound is the sound of America yawning.

[sgtrds]

He should spend some of the left over campaign money on a better toupee.....

[donnie900]

Cholera.. and gonarea. Madcow and ecoli. People say if people knew where their food came from, there'd be an uproar. But thats not true. We'll just stop getting our food at the supermarkets, and bag ourselves 8 legged raindeer.