OTG Goes “Wah, Wah, Wah” Over Petitions
By Vince Leibowitz on Feb 28, 2006 in 2006 Texas Elections, Uncategorized
Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts and candidate for governor Carole Keeton Strayhorn, a Republican running as an independent, has accused the Texas Secretary of State of playing politics with petition-gathering timetables and her campaign has hinted at a lawsuit over the matter.
Strayhorn, who must gather 45,000 signatures between the close of the March 7 primary election and May 11 in order to appear on the statewide ballot for Governor, says her campaign will begin gathering signatures as soon as the polls close on March 7. This, the campaign says, is being done based on a letter from the Texas Secretary of State. However, after that letter was issued, the SOS told Strayhorn her campaign must wait until the next day, March 8, to gather any signatures.
This has prompted Strayhorn, who goes by the slogan, “One Tough Grandma,”to accuse Secretary of State Roger Williams, a longtime GOP fund-raiser and Perry appointee, of playing politics and putting obstacles in the way of her independent candidacy.
Campaign manager Brad McClellan, Strayhorn’s son and White House Press Secratary Scott McClellan’s brother, told the Dallas Morning News that Secretary of State Roger Williams won’t allow petition-gathering to begin immediately after the polls close in the March 7 primary.
He said the secretary of state’s refusal is part of a broader effort to slow verification of signatures that Strayhorn and fellow independent Kinky Friedman need to get on the November general election ballot. He warned that the Strayhorn campaign might sue over such issues.
“It’s absolutely political,” Mr. McClellan said. “All these interpretations seem to be in favor of Rick Perry.”
A spokesman for Mr. Williams said the secretary of state was simply following the law.
“There’s nothing political about it,” said Scott Haywood. “In Texas, there are certain requirements for independent candidates to get a place on the ballot, and our office is applying those to each candidate this election cycle.”
At issue is a desire by the Strayhorn campaign to jump-start its petition-gathering with an event starting immediately after the polls close at 7 p.m.
State law requires that independent candidates for governor collect 45,540 signatures from registered voters who did not vote in the primary. They have until May 11 to submit their petitions.
Also, Mr. Williams’ office won’t accept small groups of signatures on a “rolling” basis, which the Strayhorn campaign says would speed verification of petitions
Both independent campaigns say the faster the petitions can be verified, the better for fundraising. But the Friedman campaign is not joining Mrs. Strayhorn’s efforts to begin collecting signatures on March 7 or to have names verified on a rolling basis, said spokeswoman Laura Stromberg.
The Friedman campaign plans to begin collecting signatures after midnight March 8 outside the secretary of state’s office.
Mr. Haywood said state law requires that candidates turn in all their petitions at once, at which point the secretary of state will begin verifying signatures. He defended the estimate that the process could take two months, based on how long it took the SOS to appraise Pat Buchannan’s signatures for the ballot for president in 2000.
[...] And, then there is the nightmare issue that will probably result in a protracted court battle of when signature gathering can actually begin. Last I heard, SOS said after the primary runoff. So, whatever’s being gathered now is null and void. It also leaves both candidates only a one-month “safety zone” in which to actually gather legally valid signatures. [...]