Ottawa mayoral candidate Terry Kilrea has dropped out of the race for mayor and thrown his support behind incumbent Bob Chiarelli.

Kilrea made the bombshell announcement at Ottawa City Hall Wednesday morning, saying he can't run "a champagne campaign on a beer budget."

Terry Kilrea was considered a leading contender for mayor.

And, he said, he's not willing to go into debt to mount the type of campaign needed to win the race for mayor of a city like Ottawa.

Kilrea said he will run for a council seat instead, in one of four wards that he will announce next week.

Kilrea was runner-up to Chiarelli in the 2003 election. He is generally considered the most conservative of the four main candidates for mayor.

Born in 1957 in Ottawa, Kilrea ran for mayor of Ottawa in the 2003 municipal election with a right-wing platform that included opposition to light rail expansion, opposition to official bilingualism, abolition of the ban on smoking in public places and an increase in police officers.

Kilrea's campaign was considered highly controversial by light rail supporters and poverty activists.

A court enforcement officer and political neophyte, he finished in second place.

Kilrea also ran for the Conservative Party of Canada nomination in Ottawa South for the 2004 federal election. He lost the nomination to Alan Riddell, who was defeated in the election by Liberal candidate David McGuinty.

Kilrea's departure leaves three main candidates running for mayor in the November election: Chiarelli, former councillor Alex Munter and Larry O'Brien, chairman of Calian, an Ottawa high-technology services company.