Michael Chadwick of Post Falls has announced he's withdrawing from the race and endorsing GOP rival Raul Labrador, and also launching a campaign for the U.S. Senate in the 2014 election. That's when current U.S. Sen. Jim Risch's term in office ends; Chadwick didn't say why he'd want to challenge Risch, should Risch seek a second term. Instead, Chadwick spins a conspiracy theory centering around fellow GOP congressional candidate Vaughn Ward, whom Chadwick contends represents "powerful special interest groups in New York City and Washington, D.C." In a letter published on Chadwick's campaign Web site, he calls Ward, a Marine and decorated veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, a "protege and surrogate of the military-industrial-intelligence establishment" who will "vote to build up and sustain the Permanent War Machine."

Chadwick, 60, says on his Web site that he's a former aide to U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, a BYU grad with a master's degree in political science, and head of an array of organizations including the "New American Colonies" program, the "Liberty Park USA Foundation," the online "Alexander Hamilton Institute for International Trade" and the online "James Madison Institute for Republican Government." Since 1994, he says, "we have been researching and writing papers, monographs and books which are designed to promote the freedom, sovereignty and independence of America."

Like fellow GOP candidate Allan Salzburg, who withdrew last week from what originally was a five-way Republican primary for a chance to challenge current Democratic Congressman Walt Minnick, Chadwick is withdrawing too late to remove his name from the ballot.

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