5 GOP Candidates for Michigan Governor Ruled Ineligible

[applegrove]

5 GOP Candidates for Michigan Governor Ruled Ineligible

May 26, 2022 at 5:22 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 58 Comments

https://politicalwire.com/2022/05/26/five-gop-candidates-for-michigan-governor-ruled-ineligible/

"SNIP.......

“Five Republican candidates for Michigan governor were disqualified by a state canvassing board on Thursday for submitting nominating petitions that officials said had contained thousands of forged signatures,” the New York Times reports.

“The decision sent the race, in a key battleground state, into chaos and dealt a serious blow to the party’s plans to challenge Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, the Democratic incumbent.”

......SNIP"

[elleng]

1. GLAD they're looking!

[MagickMuffin]

2. Someone or someone's should be prosecuted for forgery, YES?

Fraud is Fraud and they will even cheat against each other.


I'm glad they're disqualified!

[BComplex]

3. OMG!!! Some good news for a change!!!

Let us enjoy the moment!!

[BumRushDaShow]

4. From the NYT link

(snip)

In an interview on Tuesday, Mr. Craig identified Vanguard Field Strategies, an Austin, Texas, firm, as helping to manage his canvassing effort, one that he said relied on several subcontractors that were previously unknown to him. He said the onus was on the firm to have checks and balances to detect fraud, and he called it “shortsighted” and unrealistic to expect that a busy candidate would verify more than 20,000 signatures.

Vanguard Field Strategies confirmed on Tuesday that 18 of the people identified in the elections bureau’s report as circulating the fraudulent petitions had been working for another firm that it had subcontracted to help it gather signatures.

The company’s president, who would not identify the subcontractor, said that none of the circulators named in the report had been paid by Vanguard. If the allegations are true, he said, the individuals should be charged with fraud.

The elections bureau rejected 9,393 of the 23,193 signatures submitted by Mr. Johnson’s campaign, leaving him with 13,800 valid signatures. Some of the fraudulent signatures represented voters who had died or moved out of the state, the bureau said.

(snip)

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/26/us/politics/michigan-republicans-governor-signatures.html

I'm sure James O'Keefe and his Project Veritas will get right on this! Yup.

[llmart]

5. This is great news!

This corruption of our elections has to stop. Bunch of power hungry criminals.

[Brother Buzz]

6. Does this translate to the 'Mother of all Write-In Campaigns' in November?

[former9thward]

7. The vote was 2-2 to not accept the signatures.

So it will go to the courts for a final decision.

[Brother Buzz]

8. When do the ballots need to go to the printers?

[former9thward]

9. The primary is August 2nd.

So there is time. The courts will fast track the case.

[Takket]

10. article with names....

sees very odd that political wire didn't mention their names???

https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/elections/2022/05/26/michigan-board-state-canvassers-petition-fraud-republican-governor/9939185002/

LANSING – A state elections panel on Thursday deadlocked 2-2 on whether five Republican candidates for governor should be barred from the August primary ballot because they each submitted too many fraudulent signatures, and an official said the effect of the vote is to disqualify the candidates.

The two Republican members — Chairman Norman Shinkle and Tony Daunt — wanted to put the candidates on the ballot. The two Democrats — Vice Chair Mary Ellen Gurewitz and Jeannette Bradshaw — did not.

The effect of the deadlock is that none of the five candidates will be on the ballot, said State Elections Director Jonathan Brater.

The action of the Board of State Canvassers is not the final word on the candidacies of former Detroit Police Chief James Craig, Oakland County businessman Perry Johnson, Byron Center businesswoman Donna Brandenburg, Grand Haven financial adviser Michael Markey, and Michigan State Police Capt. Mike Brown, who has already said he is withdrawing from the race.

~snip

James Craig, Garrett Soldano & Tudor Dixon were the top three in most of the polls. Craig is now out. He used to be the Detroit chief of police and as rethugs go was a lot closer to a McCain/Romney type that a MAGAt lunatic. He probably would have given Whitmer the best "run for her money". I don't know anything about Soldano or Tudor but unless Craig gets a reprieve somehow to get more signatures, one of those two is the likely nominee.

Fraud was certainly done here and someone should go to prison, but it is likely the disqualified candidates were the victims of the fraud, not the perpetrators. Whether those that forged the signatures were just lazy or working on behalf of one of the DQed persons opponents remains to be seen.