Looks like Charlie Baker's not the only main party candidate who won't have a primary.
Frank Phillips reports that it doesn't look like Grace Ross has the signatures to get her name on the Democratic ballot.
Secretary of State William F. Galvin, whose Elections Division has been monitoring the certification progress by city and town officials, said Ross has about 5,700 signatures, well short of 10,000 that she needs to qualify for the Sept. 14 primary election.
Massachusetts Elections 2010 analyzes how Governor Patrick and Jill Stein (G) benefit from Ross's ineligibility.
Ross’s failure to make the ballot guarantees that Patrick will run unopposed in the Democratic Primary. If Ross were on the ballot there would be $750,000 in public campaign financing available for Ross and Patrick to share. It is unlikely that Patrick would accept the public financing even if it were available because accepting that money means he would have to agree to spending caps which would put him at a severe disadvantage to his main rivals Baker and Cahill.
...
Probably the biggest beneficiary will be Jill Stein, who now doesn’t have to compete with Ross for the most progressive segment of the electorate. Stein is running as the Green Party candidate, which Ross ran as in the last election. The two of them would have been splitting that constituency. Now Stein has those voters to herself. As an independent Stein has until August to submit signatures and so is almost certain to be on the ballot, and becomes a single rallying point for progressives.
0 comments:
Post a Comment