A week after he announced he was running again for Congress, Democrat Elwyn Tinklenberg withdrew Tuesday from an increasingly competitive field of Democratic candidates in the Sixth District race.

Tinklenberg said he welcomed the chance of running once more against Republican incumbent Michele Bachmann, but "the path to that campaign is becoming increasingly improbable."

"We are faced with the prospect of the next thirteen months being a battle among Democrats," he said. "We will be spending large amounts of time and money trying to defeat each other rather than defeating Michele Bachmann."

He narrowly lost to her in 2008.

Sen. Tarryl Clark, DFL-St. Cloud, secured an influential public employee union endorsement Monday night in her bid for the Sixth District seat.

Also running is Maureen Reed, a medical doctor and advocate of health care reform. Reed has raised $230,000 since announcing in May that she was going to run, about four times what Tinklenberg had raised in the same period.

PAT DOYLE