Cahill?s running mate drops out of race

Independent gubernatorial candidate Tim Cahill took a hit Friday when his running mate defected and dropped out of the race.

Former Republican State Rep. Loscocco immediately endorsed Republican candidate Charlie Baker.

Loscocco’s exit from the race comes on the heels of the departures of Cahill’s campaign manager Adam Meldrum and chief strategist John Weaver, who quit two weeks ago.

All three said they quit because they do not believe Cahill can win.

“It is clear to me that Charlie Baker and Richard Tisei have the best chance of defeating Governor Patrick and taking Massachusetts in a new direction,” Loscocco said, as he stood next to Baker in a press conference.

Cahill promised in a press conference that he would remain in the race for governor.

“The insiders from Beacon Hill to Capitol Hill are doing everything they can to try to get me out of this race. Republican leadership has played every dirty trick possible because I’m the only candidate who won’t bow down to the special interests,” Cahill said in a statement. “This is an unprecedented insiders’ play to try to stop change.”

Cahill said he is running as an independent because he no longer believes that the current two-party system in the United States works.

However, Cahill added he had not anticipated that his running mate would drop out of the race.

The Deval Patrick campaign sought to paint the defection as mostly meaningless.

“Voters know that this kind of political scheming is a distraction from the issues that truly matter in their, like job creation, education, and health care,” said Campaign Manager Sydney Asbury in a statement. “Today’s news is just one more indication that Charlie Baker is a Beacon Hill insider who is more interested in the same back-room deals, and politics as usual that we have worked so hard to change.”