Politics & Government

Democrat Tom Fann Drops Out of Race for House Seat 106

Democratic Committee Chairman seeks people interested in running against Republican incumbent Chrissy Sommer.

Democrat Tom Fann, a St. Peters insurance broker, announced Tuesday that he's dropping out of the race for .

Fann would have faced incumbent , who just .

Fann said watching the rhetoric in recent politics made him decide to leave the race. He said he filed the paperwork with the Secretary of State's office.

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"I don't want to be involved with it," he said. "I look at the way the county leans way right. (County Executive) Mr. Ehlmann is always against TIFs but all the Republican legislators have never done anything to make a level playing field in state law. Do people want rhetoric or do they want real solutions?"

Fann, who has three kids, said he wants to be involved in trying to make things better for people, but said he's not sure people want to listen.

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St. Charles County Democratic Central Committee Chairman said the committee is looking for someone who might be interested in running for the seat.

The Democratic Central Committee members located within the 106th district would have to nominate a candidate.

"We've kind of put it out there to see if anyone else is interested," Todd said. "Right now, we're not getting a lot of feedback.... We'll see where it goes."

Todd said he was surprised to hear Fann decided to drop out.

"It was kind of out of the blue," he said. "But I've found out if you have to really persuade someone to do something, it usually means their heart's not in it."

Fann ran unsuccessfully against Republican Terry Hollander in a special election for the 5th district seat on the in August 2008. 

He also lost to Republican Mark Parkinson in the February 2008 special election for the State Representative in the 16th District seat. Former Republican Rep. Carl Bearden resigned from that post in 2007.

Todd said he thinks if the right person decides to run, a Democrat could win election to a state house seat.


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