The developments shook up the Democratic gubernatorial primary less than two months before voters go to the polls — and as many people have yet to focus on the race.

Andy Gronik is the first candidate on the Aug. 14 primary ballot to drop out of the race. His announcement came a day after he garnered only 4 percent support in the latest Marquette Law School Poll among 10 contenders.

About a third of respondents remained undecided.

Spokespeople for eight of the other nine candidates said they planned to stay in the race.

A spokeswoman for Rep. Dana Wachs, D-Eau Claire, declined to say whether he was staying in the race after the Marquette Poll found his support at 2 percent, but said he “is continuing the work of unifying voters to defeat Scott Walker in November.”

In his statement, Gronik mentioned state Superintendent Tony Evers’ lead in the poll — he received 25 percent support, more than triple his closest competitors — but did not announce an endorsement.

Others could drop out

Former Democratic state Sen. Tim Cullen, who has not endorsed in the race, said he expects other candidates could drop out before the primary, but even if the field dropped down to five candidates there would still be uncertainty about who the nominee will be.

“I don’t know who (will drop out),” Cullen said. “If it happened to (Gronik) why wouldn’t it happen to one or two more?”

Other candidates in the field received between 1 percent and 7 percent in the Marquette poll.

Gronik was one of the first candidates to enter the race in 2017 at a time when not many Democrats were expressing interest. He cast himself as an outsider and earlier this year said the other candidates were “different flavors of vanilla,” but he struggled to gain traction as the field grew.

Last year Gronik spent nearly half a million dollars on his campaign, with $450,000 of it coming from his personal wealth. In a statement, Gronik acknowledged he was having trouble breaking out from the crowded field.

“The response to my candidacy has been incredible, and we’ve been picking up momentum and supporters every day, but just not fast enough,” Gronik said. “I will be eternally grateful to everyone who stood shoulder-to-shoulder with me in the fight to reclaim our state for all of the people who live here.”

Gronik’s name will still appear first on the primary ballot in August, state Elections Commission spokesman Reid Magney said.

Wall endorses Evers

Also Thursday, Walker’s former corrections secretary Ed Wall endorsed Evers, whose campaign released an online video featuring Wall criticizing Walker’s handling of abuse allegations at state’s Lincoln Hills School for Boys youth prison.

In the video Wall says he went to Walker’s chief of staff and was told “the governor’s having trouble raising campaign money and this story won’t get off the front page of the paper.”

“We put multiple plans in front of Gov. Scott Walker’s staff on how to address the issues at Lincoln Hills and they didn’t want to deal with it,” Wall says. “Scott Walker completely mismanaged the issues at Lincoln Hills.”

Wall also says “it was strongly suggested to cabinet secretaries that we not create written records, no paper trails.”

Walker spokeswoman Amy Hasenberg said in response to the video “these claims are blatantly false and that is confirmed by both chiefs of staff who interacted with Mr. Wall.”

“These false claims are being made by someone who was fired for asking a state employee to destroy records and violate Wisconsin’s open records laws,” Hasenberg said.

Wall resigned from his DOC job in February 2016 to take his former job in the Department of Justice. He was then demoted and two months later was fired in connection with an incident in which he sent a Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission complaint related to his demotion to Walker’s then-chief of staff Rich Zipperer and suggested Zipperer shred the document.

Walker’s campaign declined to comment and referred questions to the Republican Party of Wisconsin.

“Ed Wall was fired after evading Wisconsin’s open record laws and secretly lobbying for a new job, so it’s not surprising that he’s running to the defense of a bureaucrat who chooses politics over helping those he’s charged with serving,” party spokesman Alec Zimmerman said.