Paul Hackett quit the race. This is why.

So why did Paul Hackett drop out of the Indiana Senator Primary race?

Here is what he said: Hackett blames inside-the-beltway Democratic leaders who do not want to have an upstart defeat the favored Democrat, Sherrod Brown.

Next, supporting Hackett’s claims, is a Mother Jones article written by David Goodman . He describes a campaign of economic sabotage, whisper campaigns, and threats orchestrated by inside-the-beltway Democrats who feared that he could not defeat Republican Senator DeWine.

But then there is this article by Elizabeth Auster, of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. It offers a different but complementary story, one of confusion and disorganization in the Hackett campaign.

Hackett prides himself on his independence and forthrightness, the very characteristics which made him such an attractive candidate. But the process of getting elected at the statewide level requires that the candidate set up an organization, then turn over his personal schedule and his message to that organization for the period of the campaign. That tends to knock the independence out of people. Hackett wasn’t ready to sacrifice those parts of himself that he was going to have to give to his organization.

Then there was the problem that he hates fundraising. He couldn’t beat Brown without a major fundraising campaign in which he was the key fundraiser, and he wasn’t willing to do that work.

I’ve always thought that being a successful politician was a specialized and very difficult job. I detested Texas Senator Phil Gramm, but his ability to do the 18 hour per day job necessary to get elected got my respect.

Hackett wasn’t ready to sacrifice what was required to get elected. Frankly, I really regret that. I like him as a candidate. He is very attractive. But a well-organized well-funded experienced but generally blah candidate will defeat a personally attractive inexperienced, disorganized, poorly funded candidate every time. Sherrod Brown really does have a much better shot at beating DeWine than Paul Hackett did.