Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds will now have an uncontested primary in June. The challenge to Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett’s nomination petitions was upheld by the State Objection Panel by a 2 to 1 vote. Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate and State Auditor Mary Mosiman, both Republicans, voted in favor of upholding the challenge. Attorney General Tom Miller, a Democrat, was opposed.
Corbett met the filing deadline to appear on the ballot for the June 5th Republican primary challenging Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds for the party’s nomination.
Like federal offices, the nomination petition signature requirements for Governor are based on the number of votes each party’s presidential candidate received in the previous presidential election, so they differ by party. The required amount of signatures for Republican gubernatorial candidates this cycle is 4,005 signatures from a minimum of 10 counties.
Corbett’s campaign turned in less than 4,100 signatures, and Craig Robinson, a Republican activist, filed a formal challenge with the Iowa Secretary of State’s office after finding duplications and improperly filled out petitions. After the challenge, he was left with 3,9997 signatures, eight short of what was required. The commission did not allow signatures that the campaign said were mistakenly crossed out to count.
The challenge to Corbett is an example of why campaigns need to have far, far more signatures than what is required so they can survive challenges like this.
The panel met on Tuesday afternoon in the Iowa State Capitol building. Two additional candidates also had challenges to their nomination petitions upheld so far.
The challenge to Dale Bolsinger, the Republican candidate in Iowa House District 56, was unanimously upheld. Bolsinger was running to replace State Representative Kristi Hager (R-Waukon) who is running for county supervisor in Allamakee County. Republicans in that district will have the opportunity to nominate a candidate.
Also, the challenge to the petitions of Ginny Caligiuri, a Republican candidate in Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District, was upheld. Christopher Peters, who was the Republican nominee in 2016 to challenge Congressman Dave Loebsack (D-Iowa), will have an uncontested primary.
The challenges to the petitions of Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, Congressman David Young (R-Iowa), and Congressman Steve King (R-Iowa) were unanimously rejected.
Update: Theresa Greenfield’s place in the Democrat primary ballot in Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District was in doubt due to not being to obtain enough signatures since her campaign manager admitted to her that some were forged. Iowa 3rd Congressional District Democrats nominated in a special convention on Monday due to an obscure law that seems to give them the ability to do that. You can read about that at Bleeding Heartland.
Iowa Attorney General Tom MIller’s office did not offer an opinion, and the State Objection Panel rejected the challenge of her petitions since she didn’t have enough anyway. They declined to rule on the nomination by the Iowa 3rd Democrats. So I’m not exactly sure where that leaves Greenfield. My guess is that she will appear on the ballot unless she is successfully challenged in court or if Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate does not certify her nomination. He has until 5:00p on Wednesday to do that.
