Dan Wolf Is Officially No Longer Running for Governor

Monday brought a couple of mix-ups in the race for Massachusetts governor: Cape Air mogul Dan Wolf quit his bid, conceding his campaign wouldn’t be cleared for takeoff in enough time to make a difference. Meanwhile, Boston venture capitalist Jeffrey McCormick rolled out a bid of its own.

Wolf, a Democrat, had suspended his gubernatorial bid in August after the state Ethics Commission ruled that Wolf had to stop doing business with the state and resign his state Senate seat—or relinquish his 23 percent stake in the company he founded some 25 years ago.

Wolf wanted state ethics rules changed to allow him and other businesspeople to be able to hold office if their companies’ contracts were similarly “non-negotiable.” The state Ethics Commission said it would take months to draft, hold hearings, and adopt new rules. Wolf said that was too long. He said in a statement:

In the weeks and months since August, we continued to hope that the Commission would resolve this matter in a timely fashion, allowing me to move forward with my campaign, creating a regulation that would also encourage others to serve the public while protecting the public’s trust.

However, after the Commission’s meeting last Thursday, October 17, it is now clear that no resolution, regardless of its form, will be reached for at least several more months, quite possibly longer.

Given that timing, I feel I have no option but to end my campaign for Governor.

Indeed, time off the trail didn’t seem to be doing Wolf any favors: A recent Public Policy Polling survey put him at 3 percent among Democrats. Attorney General Martha Coakley led Democrats with 57 percent. And in a match-up with Republican Charlie Baker, Wolf trailed 37 percent to 31 percent.

Also on Monday, McCormick tossed his hat into the expanding ring for governor as an independent. According to the State House News Service:

McCormick founded Saturn in 1994 to finance early-stage growth companies, according to a biography on the company’s website that lists him as the managing partner of the firm. Saturn touts among its successful investments Twin Rivers Technologies, the email marketing company Constant Contact and Boston Duck Tours.

McCormick, 52, of Boston, also sits on the board of the Sean McDonough Charitable Foundation, the Citi Performing Arts Center, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and Trinity Church Boston. He is a graduate of Syracuse University.

McCormick joins a field crowded with candidates—and former and current business executives—that is increasingly getting to feel like a Boston mayoral contest. It includes Republican and former Harvard Pilgrim chief Charlie Baker; Democrats Attorney General Martha Coakley, Treasurer and marketing maven Steven Grossman, former Obama administration Medicare chief Donald Berwick, biotech executive Joseph Avellone and former state and federal homeland security advisor Juliette Kayyem; and fellow independent and business executive Evan Falchuck.