Daniels won’t try presidential run

WASHINGTON – Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels said early today that he won’t run for president because of family considerations, narrowing the field in the race for the GOP nomination.

“In the end, I was able to resolve every competing consideration but one,” Daniels said, disclosing his decision in an e-mail to supporters. “The interests and wishes of my family, is the most important consideration of all. If I have disappointed you, I will always be sorry.”

The e-mail, sent by the governor through Eric Holcomb, the Indiana Republican Party chairman and one of Daniels’ closest advisers, was confirmed by another aide close to Daniels.

“The counsel and encouragement I received from important citizens like you caused me to think very deeply about becoming a national candidate,” Daniels said in the middle-of-the-night message.

Daniels had been considering a bid for months, pressured by many in the establishment wing of the party hungering for a conservative with a strong fiscal record to get into the race. He never sounded particularly enthused about a national run and always pointed back to his family – his wife and four daughters – as the primary consideration.

As he weighed a bid, the spotlight shone on his unusual marital history as well.

His wife, Cheri, filed for divorce in 1993 and moved to California to remarry, leaving him to raise their four daughters in Indiana. She later divorced, and she and Daniels reconciled and remarried in 1997.