One can argue that Bill Lee, who lost the GOP endorsement at its May convention, should have bowed out gracefully. But that misses the point. Mr. Lee had every right to challenge John Burris for the nomination. With an intra-party conflict that late in the campaign season, there is not enough time to soothe hard feelings and unite behind the candidate. Mr. Burris was badly beaten in the November general election.
Polls now indicate the race was never close.
But whatever chance Mr. Burris had was forfeited because he had to spend so much energy and political capital mustering Republican support, and was unable to make inroads among Democrats and independents. The same thing happened to William T. Quillen, who in 1984 resigned from the state Supreme Court to seek the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. Former Gov. Sherman W. Tribbitt challenged him. Judge Qullen won the primary but was easily defeated in November by Republican Michael N. Castle. So both political parties should favor moving the primary election to the spring.