MassGOP-backed lieutenant governor bid falls short after signature shortfall
A GOP-endorsed lieutenant governor candidate in Massachusetts says she collected 7,500 legitimate signatures but fell short of the 10,000 needed. She is pressing Bill Galvin to extend the deadline amid forgery concerns tied to a paid signature gatherer.
A GOP-endorsed lieutenant governor candidate in Massachusetts is headed toward a legal fight over ballot access after saying she fell short of the 10,000 signatures required to qualify for the November ballot.
Anne Brensley, who won the Massachusetts GOP endorsement for lieutenant governor with more than 56% of the vote, said her campaign collected more than 7,500 “legitimate” signatures through grassroots efforts. She also said she paid a Republican party insider to gather 6,500 additional signatures.
Brensley’s campaign now claims the signature-gathering effort quickly unraveled.. In a statement. it said that “entire batches were rejected” and that towns where the campaign “had supposedly gathered signatures appeared to have little or no actual activity.” The campaign added that town clerks from three towns contacted the Massachusetts Secretary of State’s office with forgery concerns.
The person Brensley’s campaign blamed for the problem, Weymouth Republican Town Committee chair Joe Bronske, did not respond to a request for comment.
Brensley’s campaign provided an email screenshot that it said showed Bronske’s company gathered 6,203 signatures as of April 30 and had received $15,000 from the campaign. The email also indicated Bronske focused efforts in Weymouth, Braintree, Quincy, Easton, Hanover and Rockland.
According to Brensley’s campaign, the alleged batch rejections triggered additional complications for other candidates as well.. It said attorney general candidate Michael Walsh and fellow lieutenant governor candidate Anne Manning-Martin also worked with Bronske and “face difficult ballot access issues.” Manning-Martin did not respond to requests for comment Thursday evening.
The campaign is asking Secretary of the Commonwealth Bill Galvin to extend the signature deadline by two weeks.. Galvin’s spokesperson. Deb O’Malley. told The Boston Globe that clerks from three cities and towns reached out with concerns about potential fraudulent signatures submitted on behalf of some candidates.. O’Malley said Galvin cannot extend or alter the deadline for signature gathering because it is set in law.
As for what happens next, Walsh’s campaign said clerks have until May 26 to complete certification of signature, and clerks have reported receiving more than enough certified signatures to get the candidate on the ballot.
Brensley’s team also pointed to what it described as financial arrangements surrounding signature gathering.. In an alleged email included by her campaign, Bronske, owner of Ancestors’s Trail Genealogy, indicated that 7,000 signatures would cost $35,000.. The state Office of Campaign and Political Finance records do not show payments between Brensley and Bronske as of Thursday. according to the reporting.
If she cannot make the ballot, Brensley said she plans to run as a write-in candidate.
“I said that I was on a mission to change a state, and I mean it,” she told The Boston Globe. “And if I have to run a full-blown campaign as a sticker candidate, knowing that I’m at a huge disadvantage for doing that, that’s what I’m going to do.”
Massachusetts politics ballot access signature requirements GOP nomination Bill Galvin Anne Brensley