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Perry
Johnson
was also
widely
viewed
as one
of the
top
candidates
in the
state’s
Republican
primary
for
governor.
(Credit...Daniel
Shular/The
Grand
Rapids
Press,
via
Associated
Press) |
| |
Michigan
GOP
governor
hopefuls
off
ballot,
court
fight
next
By SARA
BURNETT
5-7
minutes
LANSING
- Two of
the
leading
candidates
for the
GOP
nomination
for
Michigan
governor
say they
will ask
the
courts
to
intervene
after
they
were
found
ineligible
Thursday
for the
August
primary,
reshaping
the race
to
challenge
Democratic
Gov.
Gretchen
Whitmer
in the
battleground
state
this
fall.
Former
Detroit
Police
Chief
James
Craig,
who has
led in
most
primary
polls,
and
businessman
Perry
Johnson,
along
with
three
other
lesser-known
candidates,
did not
qualify
for the
ballot.
The
state
elections
bureau
recommended
they be
disqualified,
saying
it found
thousands
of
fraudulent
signatures
on
petitions
submitted
by the
candidates.
The vote
by the
bipartisan
Board of
State
Canvassers
was 2-2,
with two
Democrats
supporting
the
recommendation
and two
Republicans
saying
the
candidates
should
get on
the
ballot.
A tie
vote
means
the
candidates
lost.
Craig
criticized
the
board’s
partisan
decision
as “a
travesty”
and said
the
bureau
should
have
done a
line-by-line
verification
of
signatures
he
submitted,
rather
than
rejecting
entire
pages
based on
its
findings
of
fraud.
He said
the
campaign
will
file an
“immediate
appeal.”
“We are
confident
that
when the
law is
justly
applied,
our
campaign
will be
on the
ballot
this
August,”
Craig
said.
Johnson
has
already
spent
millions
of his
personal
fortune
on the
contest.
Attorney
Jason
Torchinsky
said the
state’s
process
had
“fatal
flaws
that
didn’t
follow
election
law” and
that
he’s
confident
Johnson
will be
on the
ballot
after
the
court
review.
The
other
lesser-known
GOP
candidates
— Donna
Brandenburg,
Michael
Brown
and
Michael
Markey —
also
were
found
ineligible
after
elections
staff
said
they,
too,
didn’t
turn in
enough
valid
signatures.
Brown
withdrew
from the
race on
Tuesday.
Democrats
challenged
the GOP
candidates’
petitions,
alleging
mass
forgery
and
other
issues.
Another
Republican
candidate,
Tudor
Dixon,
had also
contested
Craig’s
voter
signatures
as fake.
But the
bureau,
which is
part of
Democratic
Secretary
of State
Jocelyn
Benson’s
department,
said it
discovered
the
fraud in
its own
review
and
didn’t
process
the
challenges
filed by
the
Michigan
Democratic
Party
and
Dixon.
Candidates
for
governor
were
required
to
submit
valid
signatures
from
15,000
registered
voters
to make
the
ballot.
In a
report
released
late
Monday,
bureau
staff
said
multiple
petition
sheets
for
various
candidates
“displayed
suspicious
patterns
indicative
of
fraud.”
Some of
the
petitions
for
Craig’s
campaign,
for
example,
had
signatures
that all
appeared
to be
written
in the
same
handwriting.
Staff
said
that
while
it’s
typical
for
petitions
to
include
scattered
instances
of
dubious
signatures,
“the
Bureau
is
unaware
of
another
election
cycle”
with
such a
“substantial
volume”
of
fraudulent
signatures
involving
multiple
candidates.
They
identified
36
petition
circulators
— who
are
often
paid per
signature
gathered
— who
submitted
petition
sheets
made up
entirely
of
invalid
signatures.
The
Republicans
who
remain
on the
ballot
are
Dixon,
who
recently
was
endorsed
by the
family
of
former
Trump
administration
Education
Secretary
Betsy
DeVos,
real
estate
agent
Ryan
Kelley,
businessman
Kevin
Rinke,
pastor
Ralph
Rebandt
and
chiropractor
Garrett
Soldano.
An
attorney
for
Craig
said
Thursday
he has
signed
affidavits
from 15
registered
voters
whose
signatures
were
determined
to be
forged,
but who
say they
did sign
the
candidate’s
petition.
Lawyer
George
Lewis
also
said the
campaign
acknowledges
it
appears
there
was
fraud by
the
people
who
gathered
signatures,
but said
Craig
himself
is a
victim.
Democratic
board
member
Mary
Ellen
Gurewitz
pushed
back.
She
described
Craig’s
petitions
as
“obviously
fraudulent”
and said
the law
puts the
burden
on the
candidate
to
submit
valid
signatures.
Gurewitz
also
asked
what the
campaign
did to
check
the
validity
of the
signatures.
Lewis
said he
wasn’t
able to
provide
an
answer.
Republican
board
member
Tony
Daunt
said he
rejects
suggestions
that
state
staff
acted
for
partisan
reasons,
as some
have
alleged.
But he
said he
couldn’t
support
kicking
candidates
off the
ballot
because
the
staff
didn’t
have the
resources
to check
every
signature.
The
bureau
said
Craig
submitted
10,192
valid
signatures
— well
short of
the
15,000
needed.
It
tossed
11,113
signatures,
including
9,879
that
were
allegedly
fraudulently
collected
by 18
paid
circulators.
Staff
said
Johnson
turned
in
13,800
valid
signatures.
They
threw
out
9,393,
including
6,983
that
they
said are
fraudulent
and were
gathered
by many
of the
same
people
who also
forged
signatures
that
Craig
submitted.
The
bureau
said it
doesn’t
believe
specific
campaigns
or
candidates
were
aware of
what
“fraudulent-petition
circulators”
were
doing,
and said
it’s
working
to refer
the
fraud to
law
enforcement
for
criminal
investigation.
Republican
Norman
Shinkle,
chairman
of the
Board of
Canvassers,
said the
people
who
committed
fraud
“should
go to
prison”
but that
the
courts
should
decide
whether
candidates
make the
ballot.
Michigan
Republican
Party
Chairman
Ron
Weiser
said in
a
statement
that the
candidates
“should
have
their
time in
court”
and that
they are
fighting
against
voter
disenfranchisement.
Meanwhile,
Michigan
Democratic
Party
Chairwoman
Lavora
Barnes
called
on the
GOP
candidates
whose
petitions
were
reviewed
Thursday
to
withdraw
from the
race.
“Michiganders
deserve
accountable
leaders,
and
these
candidates
have
shown
they are
not
capable
of
that,”
she
said.
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