Politicians dream of the kind of press that gubernatorial candidate Josh Penrygarnered in recent months.
Fox News reported Penry was ready to lead a national comeback of the Republican Party. The Washington Post surmised that the young state Senate minority leader might be the best hope to lay the new foundation for the GOP.
Then Penry dropped out, paving the way for his one-time boss, former U.S. Rep. Scott McInnis, to easily capture the GOP nomination.
Penry says it was a personal decision aimed at making sure Republicans unseat Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter in 2010 and spend their money reclaiming offices lost in the last three election cycles. He then reinforced the point by appearing at a unity rally to back McInnis and a new state GOP platform.
But in an extended interview last week shortly after that rally, Penry made clear that he would have preferred to see McInnis drop out instead and that he did so only reluctantly.
“At some point somebody’s got to be the adult and say, ‘I’m going to step back and do what’s right for the cause,’ ” Penry said. “Ironically, it was the 33-year-old who made the decision.”
THE COMPLETE Q&A WITH PENRY
