It looks like it's now just a three-person race for the District 2 school board seat.

Carlene Lucas has told the Wake Education Partnership that she is no longer actively campaigning in District 2. Like Chris Augustine, who also stopped actively campaigning, she'll still be on the ballot.

Lucas was admittedly a long-shot candidate to win in District 2, which covers Garner, Fuquay-Varina and Willow Spring. She planned to spend less than $3,000 and didn't have the backing of any of the major groups.

Lucas will also not be attending tonight's candidate forum. This should give more time to the remaining active candidates: incumbent Horace Tart, John Tedesco and Cathy Truit.

Another Wake County school board candidate is, for all intents and purposes, dropping out of the race.

Chris Augustine, a candidate in the District 2 field, issued a statement today in which he announces he's going to stop actively campaigning but his name will remain on the Oct. 6 ballot. He cites the difficult budget cuts facing the school district and his belief his ideas won't be heard.

Two other candidates, Ray Martin and Jerry Ballan, also dropped out. But they did so early enough that their names won't be on the ballot. The ballots are in the process of being printed.

Carlene Lucas was the only candidate to file today before the deadline for school board elections.

Lucas is running for the District 2 board seat. I'll have more details about Lucas later.

There will be five people running for the District 2 with four Republicans and one Libertarian. Incumbent Horace Tart is seeking another term. 

We can forget about Arnie Osborn running for the school board this fall.

Osborn filed today to run for a seat on the Garner Town Council.  In a press release on his web site, Osborn said he is backing John Tedesco for the District 2 school board seat.

Tedesco is running against incumbent Horace Tart, Cathy Truitt and Chris Augustine for the seat. We'll see if anyone else files before the noon deadline on Friday.