WASHINGTON, Oct. 21 (UPI) -- Columbia, S.C., Mayor Bob Coble has ended his campaign for the senate seat held by retiring Sen. Ernest "Fritz" Hollings.
Coble, considered the underdog in the primary, endorsed fellow Democrat Inez Tenenbaum, the state's superintendent of education.
Tenenbaum, one of South Carolina's more popular Democrats, is expected to defeat political neophyte Marcus Belk in the June 2004 primary.
If elected, she would be the first woman to represent South Carolina in the senate.
Sources tell UPI Coble had been drawing some support from Democrats still loyal to one-term former Gov. Jim Hodges, some of whom blame Tenenbaum for not doing enough to help in 2002 when Hodges was defeated in his bid for a second term.
Republicans vying for the GOP nomination include former state Attorney General Charlie Condon, Rep. Jim DeMint, Myrtle Beach Mayor Mark McBride and Thomas Ravenel, a real estate developer from Charleston.
