One of the candidates for mayor of Victoria is pulling out of the race.
Gary Beyer said in a statement Thursday that other credible candidates have stepped forward to challenge incumbent Mayor Lisa Helps.
“The last thing I want to do is to split the vote of the opposition in such a way that Mayor Helps ends up getting re-elected with only a small plurality of votes,” he said.
He urged other candidates to weigh their options as well so that voters who oppose Helps have a clear choice on Oct. 20.
Beyer’s withdrawal leaves seven people challenging Helps. The others are Rob Duncan, Mike Geoghegan, Stephen Hammond, Ryan Moen, Bruce McGuigan and Chris Zmuda.