It's official: Hoeffel out

You could have gotten whiplash watching this one. He announces, and then is asked to pull out one day later, apparently due to Rendell's concerns about having a gubernatorial ticket too biased toward the Southeast corner of the state.

"He has become convinced that this could create more fuel for a bogus divisive issue," Hoeffel said. "This has always been about helping Ed. I can't go forward if he is publicly saying he doesn't want me."

(from the DN story here) This is two times that Rendell has asked Hoeffel to step aside for party interests. Will there come a time that Hoeffel gets supported in a significant campaign instead?

Update: Jane's pretty bitter about this, and points out that Rendell's been doing a lot of intervention into regional primaries, but apparently couldn't be bothered to suggest that a moribund representative step down and let somebody show up who would actually do the job...