Grace Ross Fails to Make Ballot

May 19, 2010 in Governor by Massachusetts Election 2010 | View Comments

Grace Ross

Update: Confirmed, Ross doesn’t have enough signatures and won’t be on the Democratic Primary Ballot

According to Secretary of State William Galvin, Grace Ross is well short of the required number of signatures to make it on the gubernatorial primary ballot.

Ross had to submit 10,000 signatures by May 4th, which were due to be certified by today at 5pm. Galvin told the Boston Globe today that they have certified only 5,700 signatures of the 10,000 she needs. When reached for comment Ross said “We are going have an announcement in the morning.”

Even if Ross had gathered the necessary signatures, she would have faced another challenge – getting 15% of delegates to support her at the State Democratic Convention on June 5th.

Deval Patrick Benefits

Ross’ failure to make the ballot guarantees that Patrick will run unopposed in the Democratic Primary. If Ross were on the ballot there would be $750,000 in public campaign financing available for Ross and Patrick to share. It is unlikely that Patrick would accept the public financing even if it were available because accepting that money means he would have to agree to spending caps which would put him at a severe disadvantage to his main rivals Baker and Cahill.

Ross’ failure to make the ballot does mean a lost opportunity for progressive activists. Had Ross made the ballot, she would almost certainly have accepted the public financing giving her the financial backing to promote her progressive message, and it would have meant one more progressive voice in the race.

It would also have forced Patrick to have to answer to progressive voters to a greater degree, or risk losing them to Ross. This way Patrick can more safely campaign to centrist Democrats. Ross’ campaign literature is extremely critical of Patrick. With $750,000 of public financing she could have done significant damage to Patrick.

Jill Stein Benefits

Probably the biggest beneficiary will  be Jill Stein, who now doesn’t have to compete with Ross for the most progressive segment of the electorate. Stein is running as the Green Party candidate, which Ross ran as in the last election. The two of them would have been splitting that constituency. Now Stein has those voters to herself. As an independent, Stein has until August to submit signatures and so is almost certain to be on the ballot, and becomes a single rallying point for progressives.

 
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  • Murph

    Ross is a self-aggrandizing fool in the model of Ralph Nader.

    This is an excellent development and shows in spades her organizational and thinking ability: deformed.

  • Murph

    Ross is a self-aggrandizing fool in the model of Ralph Nader.

    This is an excellent development and shows in spades her organizational and thinking ability: deformed.

  • http://farab.biz Farab

    This is an excellent development and shows in spades her organizational and thinking ability: deformed.
    +1

  • http://farab.biz Farab

    This is an excellent development and shows in spades her organizational and thinking ability: deformed.
    +1

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