In an email to supporters today, Green gubernatorial candidate Lynne Williams announced she will quit the race for governor after failing to gather the required 2,000 signatures from registered Green-Independent Party members to place her name on the ballot.

Williams says that she and her campaign volunteers will now focus instead on helping Green candidates attempt to win seats in the state legislature.

Williams' departure means that, barring the unlikely event of a successful write-in candidacy, there will be no Green candidate for governor for the first time since 1994, when the party first achieved ballot status. The lack of a Green opponent may help Democratic and independent candidates in November. In 2006, Green candidate Pat LaMarche garnered 9.6% of the vote.

Today is the last day for candidates in all three major parties to submit signatures to place their names on the ballot. Several gubernatorial candidates submitted their petitions last week and others are dropping theirs off throughout the day.