HARRISBURG, Pa. -- One month after being cleared of criminal charges connected to his young neighbor's death in Westmoreland County, state Sen. Robert Regola is abandoning his re-election campaign.

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State Department officials said they received paperwork Monday from Regola, a Hempfield Township Republican, notifying them of his decision to remove his name from the ballot in November's election.

Regola will not speak to the media on Monday, according to his spokesperson, but he did release a lengthy statement about his decision to withdraw. (Scroll down this page to read the entire statement.)

Capitolwire.com -- a Harrisburg-based Web site -- reported that recent polls show Regola was trailing challenger Tony Bompiani, a Democrat from Youngwood.

County Commissioner Kim Ward has been mentioned as a possible replacement for Regola on the ballot. Her office declined to comment Monday.

Regola's 14-year-old neighbor, Louis Farrell, was found shot to death in the woods behind their homes in July 2006. It was ruled a suicide by the county coroner.

Last month, Regola was found not guilty of perjury and reckless endangerment. Prosecutors claimed that he lied about how he stored his gun and whether it was ever kept in his teenage son's room, but the jury cleared him.

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Statement From Sen. Regola:

After much consideration, I have decided to not be a candidate for reelection to the Pennsylvania Senate.

This has been one of the most difficult decisions I have ever faced because of my desire to see the cause of conservative reform advance in Harrisburg and because of my fondness of serving the people of the 39th District.

For the past four years I have fought to reform our government, lower taxes, bring home Westmoreland County’s fair share from Harrisburg , and stand up for our conservative values. I am proud of my record of the last four years and look forward to serving out my term and continuing to work on these priorities. I want to thank the voters for the trust they placed in me.

Despite my belief that I would win re-election, I am unwilling to put my family, friends and supporters through the type of negative campaign that my opponent would likely conduct. Even though the jury acquitted me of these charges in less than 3 hours, my political opponents and some of the news media would likely spend the next several months vilifying me further. As one of the jurors has said, this was a political witch hunt, and I did not want to put my family through additional anguish.

I am disappointed in the conduct of the media during this process. They have focused on sensationalism more than the facts of this case. Despite my acquittal, it is easy to see that voters can have doubts about my character given what the media unfairly wrote about me. Their tabloid like reporting has tarnished my reputation in this community, and made it more difficult to seek reelection.

The death of Louis Farrell was a tragedy for the Farrell family and also for mine. Early on I attempted to reach out to the family but they rebuffed these attempts. Since then, the trial attorney they hired to represent them has attempted to denigrate me in the press by misrepresenting my actions and most of the time, outright lying about the facts of the case to create uncertainty among the public.

I have worked hard over the past four years to do my best to represent the people of my district. I have done so with honesty and integrity. I want to thank my friends and supporters who wanted me to fight on. Stepping aside helps me serve a cause greater than self and to ensure that our district has the type of representative it deserves.

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