After failing to crash Texas' U.S. Senate race, independent candidate alleges Cruz campaign derailed

[TexasTowelie]

After failing to crash Texas’ U.S. Senate race, independent candidate alleges his petition firm and the Cruz campaign derailed him

By Patrick Svitek, Texas Tribune


When independent U.S. Senate candidate Jonathan Jenkins missed the filing deadline for the November ballot last month, it surprised the political observers who had been keeping an eye on his Texas run.

Jenkins, a Euless tech entrepreneur, seemed to be running a credible — if unusual — campaign, and he had professed full confidence he would get the more than 47,000 signatures need to qualify for the ballot. Yet the deadline, June 21, came and went without Jenkins submitting the signatures, and he and his staff went dark for days.

Now Jenkins is speaking out, alleging that the signature-gathering firm he hired misled him about the progress of the petition drive — and that associates of the Republican incumbent, Sen. Ted Cruz, meddled in the effort to keep Jenkins off the ballot. All this occurred while Jenkins paid over $350,000 to the firm, California-based Arno Petition Consultants.

That's according to an election complaint Jenkins has filed with the Texas secretary of state, accusing the Cruz campaign of a "coordinated and deliberate attack" against the petition drive. The complaint does not cite a specific law that Jenkins believes the Cruz campaign broke, but it asks the secretary of state's office to investigate the allegations and refer the matter to the state attorney general. Jenkins has said he plans to look into "all other legal remedies" available.

Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2018/07/07/failed-independent-candidate-says-signature-gathering-firm-misled-him-/