Towns Drops Bid for Ranking Slot on Oversight Panel

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., has abandoned his bid to become the panel's ranking Democrat when Republicans take control of Congress next year, the Wall Street Journal's Washington Wire reports.

Last month, after the midterm elections, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, said he would challenge Towns for the ranking member position. Kucinich and other Democrats had expressed concern about whether Towns would stand up strongly to incoming Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif.

But Kucinich took himself out of the running Tuesday, throwing his support behind Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md.

"When I announced my candidacy for ranking member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, I did so out of concern for a strong Democratic response [to] Chairman Issa," Kucinich said in a statement. "Even before I announced my candidacy, I made it clear to members across the caucus that I thought that Congressman Cummings would be able to meet the challenge, and that if he was a candidate, I would support him."

But Cummings will face a challenge of his own. The Journal reported that Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., announced Tuesday night she also would be a candidate for the ranking member position.

Update, 12/15, 8:28 a.m.: Brian Beutler of Talking Points Memo reports that Towns has thrown his support behind Maloney.