Epic fail – not enough valid signatures on necessary petitions for Caligiuri candidacy
The thing is, “neverTrumper” that he is, Republican nomination candidate Christopher Peters is not very popular with any party/no-party voting block,
Where were the champions of the Caligiuri candidacy, necessary to make key things happen . . . they were pushing pipe dream matters perhaps*
By Ed Tibbitts at the QC Times (excerpts)
Caligiuri’s primary petition rejected; Peters to be on GOP ballot alone
A three-person panel on Tuesday rejected the nomination petition for Republican Ginny Caligiuri to be on the June 5 primary ballot in the 2nd congressional district.
The decision leaves Christopher Peters alone on the GOP ballot for now. However, Caligiuri’s campaign said after the ruling it plans to challenge the panel’s decision in court.
. . .
Peters’ campaign manager, Matthew Evans, said at least 14 signatures from Washington County were either duplicates or from people living in the county.
As a result, Evans said, the Caligiuri campaign had not met the legal requirement to have a sufficient number of signatures in 12 of the district’s 24 counties to qualify for the ballot.
Iowa law requires that nomination petitions for congressional candidates have signatures for half the counties in the district that equal at least 2 percent of the votes in those counties for the party’s most recent presidential candidate.
. . .
Attorney General Tom Miller, one of the members of the objection panel said a similar instance in 2004 resulted in a Democratic candidate for Congress being rejected.
“I think it’s hard to depart from that,” he said.
The other members of the panel were Secretary of State Paul Pate and State Auditory Mary Mosiman. (Ed note both are republicans)
Afterward, Zierke (Caligiuri’s campaign manager) said the panel has been flexible in the past, pointing to a 2012 decision to allow the petitions of Joe Seng, the late state senator from Davenport, even though there were irregularities with them.
Seng, at the time, was challenging Loebsack in the Democratic primary.
Zierke said Tuesday she did not know when a complaint would be filed with the district court in Polk County, but that Caligiuri would continue seeking the nomination and is moving forward with plans for an April tour of the district. . . .
Current response from the Caligiuri campaign:
March 28, 2018
CAMPAIGN UPDATE: After the recent decision by the three person panel regarding my candidacy yesterday, we are actively exploring our options and next steps. Please keep checking back for updates, as we will let you know as soon as we decide our next steps.
One question – how in the hell does something like this happen?
The burden isn’t all that high for the petition requirement if the campaign is well organized and has connections and a message to motivate those connections in such a basic undertaking.
*Too many evangelical social conservatives, the core of any Caligiuri organizational turn-out for the primary, were busy being taken in by breathless calls for “heartbeat ” legislation by the likes of Bob Vander Plaats and company which will have no effect on protecting unborn lives. A social conservative in congress would have an effect. Maybe Caligiuri can pull it off as a primary write-in. To do so would be impressive and not otherwise disruptive of the process.
