Republican Steve Laffey, in a statement released Friday, announced he has withdrawn from the Colorado Gubernatorial GOP primary a week after putting his name into the ring.

"He saw that Tom Tancredo got in, that (Scott) Gessler got in, and he wanted to avoid a contentious Republican primary that would divide the party," said Patrick Davis, Laffey's campaign manager.

Once the mayor of Cranston, R.I., Laffey moved to Fort Collins in the Spring of 2010 where he now operates a ranch. He ran for the U.S. Senate in 2006, but lost the GOP nomination to Lincoln Chafee.

"Colorado was one of the last best places," Laffey told The Post Tuesday. "But it's been obvious in the last few months that the state is not going in the right direction."