Kissling undecided on whether to keep going

Al Kissling said today he hasn’t decided whether to try to gather the signatures necessary to stay in the race to replace Steve Pearce in Congress.

“At this point, we’re still doing thinking and reflection, OK? No comment,” Kissling said in a brief phone interview.

Kissling won 13 percent of delegates at Saturday’s Democratic preprimary nominating convention, while Bill McCamley won 49 percent and Harry Teague won 36 percent. Candidates had to secure at least 20 percent to win a spot on the ballot.

To stay in the race at this point, Kissling would have to submit the signatures of 1,184 registered Democrats living in the Second Congressional District. He already submitted at least half that number when he filed to run in February.

Kissling was the only Democrat who ran for the seat in 2006, and he secured just over 40 percent of the vote against Pearce in the general election. Kissling and McCamley are both from Las Cruces, so his departure from the race would likely help McCamley, while he and McCamley would split the Las Cruces vote if he stayed in the race, which would probably help Teague.