Confirming the suspicions of many political analysts, Iowa Lt. Gov. Joy Corning dropped out of the governor’s race Monday, saying a late entry date had hampered her campaign.

“I had to be realistic and pragmatic,” she said. “Time was of the essence. I really got into the race late, and I needed more time.”

Paul Pate, Jim Ross Lightfoot and David Oman remain in the Republican fray, which will culminate with the party primary on June 2. Each of the three claimed he would gain the most from Corning’s departure.

One benefit of running for office, Corning said, was the forum she provided for her key issue — improving the lives of Iowa’s parents and their children.

“I am really glad to have had the opportunity to bring the issue of families and children to the forefront,” she said. “As the campaign went along, I found the candidates talking more about those issues.”

Corning, the first woman to seek the Republican nomination for governor, said she spent “a number of days agonizing over this decision” before she made up her mind last weekend.

Wednesday, she spent time signing letters to supporters, thanking them for their work, and she said she realized how disappointed some Iowans would be.

“That was part of my agonizing decision,” she said.

Corning had only raised about $91,000, and she said time was also a “crucial element” in her lack of funds.

“I only declared officially in November, and I had just opened up my campaign headquarters in September,” Corning said.

On everyone’s lips was the question of which remaining Republican she would support, but the Cedar Falls resident was predictably mum.

“I am not endorsing any other candidate,” she said, adding that she will not step in as a running mate on any ticket. Corning did say her “philosophies” are most like Oman’s, the Des Moines businessman now considered the most moderate GOP hopeful.

“We’re optimistic that a number of Joy Corning’s supporters will join our growing campaign,” Oman said. “We have a lot of similarities in the content of our campaigns.”

Corning backers might jump on the Oman bandwagon, he said, because it does not carry “some of the extreme views that are held by Jim Ross Lightfoot.”

Lightfoot, a former U.S. Representative from Iowa’s 3rd District, disagreed.

“Generally, when a candidate leaves the race, those that are left go with whoever the perceived front-runner is,” he said.

Lightfoot said he had talked to some of Corning’s “key supporters” since Monday’s announcement, and they indicated a desire to ignore ideological differences in the quest to maintain the 30-year Republican reign in Terrace Hill.

“The goal here is to win the Republican nomination and to make sure that we have a Republican governor, and that is probably going to take precedence over any of the single issues,” he said.

Mike Day, Pate’s media consultant, put a different spin on it.

“Paul Pate is far and away the No. 1 second choice among primary voters,” Day said, citing his campaign’s polling data. “He stands to gain from any one of the candidates dropping out.”

Pate is the “only candidate in the race offering a new vision,” Day said.

“Joy Corning supporters certainly would be inclined to support a candidate who was looking to the future,” he said.

Corning, Lightfoot and Day agreed that the “glass ceiling,” perceived as keeping women from being elected to Iowa’s highest office, is fictional.

“I do not think my gender played a part in this campaign,” Corning said, adding that “it’s always a possibility” a woman will win Iowa’s gubernatorial race.

“I don’t think that had anything to do with it,” Lightfoot said, suggesting that Corning was harmed by a lack of contributors, since many of them had already made commitments by the time she entered the race.

The Shenandoah businessman said Oman and Pate had both been soliciting donors for at least two years, and he said his campaign had been seeking support since July 1997.

Day said he has “every confidence that at some point in the future Iowa will elect a woman governor. I don’t think the fact that she’s a woman had anything to do with her lack of success in this primary.”

Democrats could hardly hide their glee at Corning’s announcement.

“I think many of Joy Corning’s supporters may just sit out the Republican primary,” said John Del Cecato, Iowa Democratic Party spokesman. “I think whoever the Democratic nominee is, that person has a great opportunity to attract those moderate Corning supporters.”

Del Cecato said the absence of a moderate in the GOP race indicates that the party “is now dominated by the far right wing.”