Planning commissioner Gary Friedman announced on Tuesday that he is dropping out of the Democratic primary for Prince William Board of County Supervisors chairman, choosing to back Babur Lateef so that the Woodbridge doctor can begin campaigning for the general election immediately.

Friedman said that the August nominating period for the parties leaves little time for a challenger to take on an incumbent as entrenched as chairman Corey Stewart (R), who is heavily favored in the GOP primary against Haymarket Town Council member Bob Weir.

Friedman has done little fundraising to date, aside from loaning his campaign over $100,000 of his own money. As he explained his decision to leave the raise, Friedman said that the calender "makes fundraising much more difficult for everybody. But, yes, that's part of the consideration. More to the point, it's the actual mechanics of running the campaign because of the way the calender is loaded up. (That) was really the driving factor for this for me."

Prince William County Democratic Committee chairman Bruce Roemmelt earlier declared that Lateef would be the favorite to win the party nomination, in part, due to his more aggressive fundraising. Friedman has run for Gainesville District supervisor as a Democrat previously in 1999 and 2003 and lost a caucus to former county attorney Sharon Pandak for the Democratic nomination for chairman in 2006.

After Stewart won that race, he nominated Friedman to be the at-large member of the planning commission as the two held similar views on residential growth issues.

Friedman's exit from the race does not entirely clear the way for Lateef to take on Stewart or Weir one-on-one in the general election, however, as Independent candidate John Gray, who has previously challenged Stewart in a past GOP primary, is also running. That could potentially split the anti-incumbent vote if Stewart is the Republican nominee. The winning candidate only needs a plurality of the vote to win the general election as Virginia, unlike other southern states, does not hold run-offs.

However, if no one else steps up to challenge Lateef in the Democratic primary, that will then free up Democrats to vote in the Republican primary for chairman because voters do not register by party in Virginia. That means anyone can vote in any primary.