The Austin Chronicle is reporting that:

Saturday night, Tim Mahoney and [Speaker of the House Tom Craddick crony] Harrison Keller qualified for a runoff election in the race for Austin Community College Board of Trustees, with the former getting 48.5% of the vote and the latter taking 33%. Today, Keller decided to withdraw . . .

His explanation?

I have learned that the cost of the upcoming runoff for Place 1 on the Austin Community College Board of Trustees could cost the college up to $400,000. Given that I joined this race to expand educational opportunities for our community and to make sure that taxpayers’ money is spent as efficiently and effectively as possible, I think this money would be better spent on ACC’s educational programs.

And:

. . . I have decided to withdraw from the runoff election and to donate the balance of my campaign funds to the Austin Community College Foundation.

For a Republican crony who stands by the side of wannabe-emperor Tom Craddick, that’s a pretty upstanding thing to do — acting on your principles. If only we could convince Hillary to do the same. [Chronic]