Republican Challenger Backs Out of Race

Cheltenham resident Michael Livingston knew going in that he had little chance of unseating U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah (D-District 2). He just imagined that he'd have gotten more help from the Republican Party in campaigning.

The 51-year-old professor at Rutgers School of Law-Camden is citing a lack of support from the local and national GOP as the prime reason that he's ending his quixotic bid for Congress.

"There was a wall of indifference with the party," said Livingston, explaining that he'd expected the GOP to take his race seriously, especially since Fattah fared poorly in last year's Democratic mayoral primary.

Asked if he'd really expected the party establishment to invest significant time and money in an overwhelmingly Democratic district, he replied that "I think I was guilty of a certain hubris."

Specifically, Livingston complained that he wasn't invited to an event held last month at the Union League in Center City meant to tout local Republican candidates. He also criticized the National Republican Congressional Committee for failing to provide him with any funds or candidate training. (Livingston had raised roughly $15,000, while Fattah has garnered as much as $130,000, though still not a hefty sum by current standards.)

In broader terms, Livingston said that the GOP had not taken sufficiently moderate positions on social issues like abortion, a shift that might help the party compete for votes in Philadelphia and its suburbs, both of which have been leaning Democratic in recent years. He also said that the party has to show "a much more serious concern for economic issues" and the difficulties many families are facing.