On the eve of the Democratic Central Committee meeting to nominate a candidate for the special congressional election, former regent Nancy Price has decided to withdraw.
She turned in a document asking to remove her name from the list of 30 candidates at the Secretary of State's Las Vegas office Friday morning.
The central committee meeting is scheduled for 1 p.m. today at Reno's Grand Sierra Resort.
The odds-on favorite to get the nomination is state Treasurer Kate Marshall. Price was the only other Democrat in the race with any name recognition.
As of Friday afternoon, that left nine Democrats in the race along with 15 Republicans and a total of 29 candidates in all.
The Democratic Party included a statement in its agenda for the session saying that the nomination would stand only if the Nevada Supreme Court upholds the ruling by Carson District Judge Todd Russell giving the two major parties the power to choose their candidate. The party has supported Secretary of State Ross Miller's argument that the field should be open to all qualified to seek the seat that was vacated by Republican Dean Heller when he was nominated to fill the vacant U.S. Senate seat in May.
A hearing before the Supreme Court on the appeal of Russell's ruling is scheduled for Tuesday.
The special election law doesn't provide for a primary vote, just the general election in case of a House vacancy.
The Republican Party, fearing numerous candidates in the special election would split their vote and give Marshall a much stronger chance to win, filed the suit calling for the nomination process instead of what Miller jokingly referred to as "a ballot royale."
The GOP held it's nomination meeting last Saturday in Sparks. Some 323 delegates there overwhelmingly chose former State Senator Mark Amodei of Carson City as their nominee.
Gov. Brian Sandoval set the election Sept. 13.
