“One of the kind of indirect benefits of this decision is it does enable our party to avoid a battle between myself and Attorney General McDonnell. I would stress that that wasn’t the reason for the decision, but it is one of the benefits of the decision. I think that most Republicans across the state like me, and they like Bob McDonnell, and the last thing that any of them wanted to have to do was pick sides between the two of us,” Bolling said in a conference call with reporters this afternoon.Bolling had confirmed earlier today the news that he will not seek the Republican Party gubernatorial nomination in 2009 in favor of making a run at a second term as lieutenant governor. The move all but hands the gubernatorial nomination to McDonnell, who like Bolling was elected to his statewide office in 2005.

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