It's not just the Indiana Democratic Party saying U.S. Rep. Todd Young lacks enough signatures to be on this year's May Republican primary ballot for U.S. Senate. Four news organizations
joined together to conduct a count and came up with 497, which is one one less certified signature in their count for the First District than the Democratic Party found. Young needs 500 certified registered voters in each of Indiana's nine congressional districts. Game over?
UPDATE: The Indiana State Republican Party just released a statement from the party's executive director, David Buskill, blasting Democrats for filing a challenge against Young's candidacy. The gist of the statement is that the Democrats should confine their objections to candidates of their own party.
"The attempt by the Indiana Democratic Party today to remove a Republican candidate from a Republican primary ballot is a new low for dirty politics in Indiana. While the Indiana Republican Party may not endorse candidates in primaries, we do expect the Democrats to focus on their own party's races instead of trying to disenfranchise voters in ours. This is the sort of civility missing in politics today, and why so many voters are fed up with politics as usual.”
This issue will really present a dilemma for the Indiana State Republican Party and the Pence administration /state election commission.....just what does the rule of law (and election rules) mean? As we have seen before, and as Gary has written on numerous occasions, when the Powers that Be want something, rules and laws will not stand in the way....case in point, the recent shenanigans surrounding the election of the chair of the Hamilton GOP. Kudos to the news organizations for doing their own count to put a little fuel to the fire....
ReplyDeleteBut, thinking long term, this may be a good thing -- if Young gets bounced off the ballot, then that means that the race between Right-Wing Dweeb Marlin Stutzman and Baron Hill may actually be comptetitive, which I think is a good thing....As a former Republican who abhors what the GOP has turned into, I really wish the Democrat party would become just a little more competitive and win a few of these races -- and tilt the balance toward the center, just a little bit....Baron Hill may not be the strongest candidate, but he's way better than Stutzman....With all of Stutzman's extreme views, he may end up the 2016 version of Richard Mourdock
Actually the legislature could change the petition law and apply it retroactively which it can do. I'm sure they'd rather not go down that road, however.
ReplyDeleteThis is why you normally get many more names on the petition than is required by law. Plus you get to screwy districts like Marion County where they'll throw out half the signatures to disqualify a candidate if the county chairmen tells them to do that.
Two words come to mind- not smart.
ReplyDeleteI so love to see Young's campaign imploding! Of course what is to stop Coats from resigning and then Pence appointing Young's fool a$$ to the Senate?
ReplyDeleteGood observation Anon 9:20. However, that's a significant risk to the Pence campaign; one of cost exceeding benefit, unless the Governor's willing to make the sacrifice...
ReplyDeleteSo, who prompted David Buskill to say something (anything) so senseless? The whole state of Indiana is mocking the Republican Party and Mr. Pence over this Hamilton County brazen theft. So Country Club Republicans can't count (they probably cheat on their handicaps, too)? In the event Coats would step aside would not Mike appoint himself to the Senate and be gone from a job at which he sucks? The Establishment gets, then, what they want, unimpeded looting, theft, rape and pillage of Indiana. Still, credit the Democrats, for once, for being of use to ALL of Indiana. And, erase some of their accumulated excrement stemming from their flee bagging....that delivered the Republican majorities....not any sudden conversion to the grasping greeds of the Stupid Party. Uh, David didn't think that foolishness above up on his own....he had bad help....sorta like the idiots who gave us an un needed fix that the courts will rapidly strike down.
ReplyDeleteTough break for Rep. Young. If this is accurate, then he's got a STEEP uphill climb: it's not about misspelled addresses or incorrect ZIP codes but solely that he didn't get enough signatures.
ReplyDeleteGary, Have you noticed that Jennifer Wagner, the former spokesperson for the Democratic Party, is telling people to move along, there is nothing to see here? I'm beginning to understand why so many of my Democratic friends hate this woman so much. She and her husband are making all of their money these days from backroom deals making with the corrupt Republicans they've hopped into bed with just like her former boss, fake Democrat Jim Schellinger. Why is this political whore allowed to speak for Democrats?
ReplyDeleteCould be there is something about being a Jennifer? Parasites hop from dead or dying host to live ones. Mike Pence appoints her husband to the State Board of Education (for no good reason). A different Jennifer finds a new patron in the ne Mayor of Fishers? Jennifer was a very popular name back in the day.
ReplyDeleteJen Wagner is not a Democrat...and she does not speak for Democrats!
ReplyDeleteThere goes Jen Wagner finger again.
ReplyDelete