another ill planned move by the GOP

[DKSuddeth]

TACOMA, Wash. - Republican leaders in Washington state were happy to have a contender for state auditor when they accepted Will Baker's last-minute offer to challenge a popular Democrat.

They didn't worry too much about who he was or how he spent his time — until they realized a considerable amount of his time was spent in jail.

Now party leaders are scrambling to remove him from the ballot, days after naming him as the Republican choice to oppose Democratic incumbent Brian Sonntag's bid for a fourth term.

"We didn't check him out," state GOP chairman Chris Vance said. "If I could, I would withdraw the letter putting him on the ballot as the Republican candidate — but it's too late."

On Friday, state election officials denied the party's request to remove Baker from the ballot, saying that would require court action.

Baker, a 41-year-old roadside flower salesman and self-styled political activist, has been arrested at least 19 times since 1992, mostly for refusing to stop speaking at Tacoma City Council and Pierce County Council meetings. He was last released from jail less than two months ago.

Baker declined to be interviewed by the Tacoma News Tribune, but when asked about his candidacy he said, "No one's asked me to withdraw."

When no Republican candidate emerged for the state office by the July 30 deadline, Vance said Baker called GOP leaders and volunteered.

In haste, the party accepted Baker's offer without thoroughly examining his background.

"He told us that he was a conservative activist," Vance said. "We did just a minimal amount of checking."

GOP picks 19 time inmate for ballot in WA state.

 

[dilloduck]

TACOMA, Wash. - Republican leaders in Washington state were happy to have a contender for state auditor when they accepted Will Baker's last-minute offer to challenge a popular Democrat.

They didn't worry too much about who he was or how he spent his time — until they realized a considerable amount of his time was spent in jail.

Now party leaders are scrambling to remove him from the ballot, days after naming him as the Republican choice to oppose Democratic incumbent Brian Sonntag's bid for a fourth term.

"We didn't check him out," state GOP chairman Chris Vance said. "If I could, I would withdraw the letter putting him on the ballot as the Republican candidate — but it's too late."

On Friday, state election officials denied the party's request to remove Baker from the ballot, saying that would require court action.

Baker, a 41-year-old roadside flower salesman and self-styled political activist, has been arrested at least 19 times since 1992, mostly for refusing to stop speaking at Tacoma City Council and Pierce County Council meetings. He was last released from jail less than two months ago.

Baker declined to be interviewed by the Tacoma News Tribune, but when asked about his candidacy he said, "No one's asked me to withdraw."

When no Republican candidate emerged for the state office by the July 30 deadline, Vance said Baker called GOP leaders and volunteered.

In haste, the party accepted Baker's offer without thoroughly examining his background.

"He told us that he was a conservative activist," Vance said. "We did just a minimal amount of checking."

GOP picks 19 time inmate for ballot in WA state.

no sweat-----we had a flower selling political hippy run for mayor in Austin--He won and did a pretty gamn good job!

 

[Avatar4321]

Well this was deffinately a dumb move...not as dumb as Democrats sending sex offenders door to door to get sensitive voter information but still dumb.

 

[DKSuddeth]

Well this was deffinately a dumb move...not as dumb as Democrats sending sex offenders door to door to get sensitive voter information but still dumb.

yeah, that dem move has to be like in the top 3 i'm thinking.

 

[5stringJeff]

Chris Vance, pardon the language, is a fucktard. In 2003 he almost lost his reelection bid as state party chair because of his inability to ride the GOP wave in 2002. He is not popular with the party PCOs, and he has further pissed people off by anointing George Nethercutt as the state's GOP Senate candidate. (I support George, but lots of people are pissed because Chris Vance shut off all debate on the subject back in January, and there are a couple other candidates running anyway.) Given his mishandling of the party and his unpopularity, I imagine that he will not be reelected next year.

 

[Merlin1047]

Baker, a 41-year-old roadside flower salesman and self-styled political activist, has been arrested at least 19 times since 1992, mostly for refusing to stop speaking at Tacoma City Council and Pierce County Council meetings. He was last released from jail less than two months ago.

Well gee whiz. If he were a Democrat and had been arrested 19 times for disrupting political meetings it would be considered a badge of honor. If the Demos had found this flower selling hippie leftover, he might well have displaced Edwards as the candidate for Veep.

 

[tpahl]

Chris Vance, pardon the language, is a fucktard. In 2003 he almost lost his reelection bid as state party chair because of his inability to ride the GOP wave in 2002. He is not popular with the party PCOs, and he has further pissed people off by anointing George Nethercutt as the state's GOP Senate candidate. (I support George, but lots of people are pissed because Chris Vance shut off all debate on the subject back in January, and there are a couple other candidates running anyway.) Given his mishandling of the party and his unpopularity, I imagine that he will not be reelected next year.

good ol' George 'term limit' nethercutt. I can never support that guy EVER for backing out of that promise. And I oppose term limits.

The guy made his number one issue term limits and promised to not run more tha 3 (or was it 2?) terms regardless of what happened with the law. Well of course he reconsidered and decided to continue running. If a man can abaondon his own principles that easy, why would I ever trust him to work for my principles?

Travis

 

[acludem]

Well travis, we agree on term limits at least

Something similar happened in here in Missouri a couple of years back. The Republican Party backed a candidate for State auditor but didn't do much advertising or campaigning for him because they assumed he would win. Instead a guy who had served prison time for fraud won the nomination (probably because his name was listed first on the ballot) and the Republicans had a candidate for statewide office they couldn't back.

acludem

 

[5stringJeff]

Of course the Democrats have had people like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton run for President, so it's not like the GOP is the only party with questionable candidates.

 

[acludem]

Of course both parties have had questionable candidates. The real problem is that parties have no control over who runs under their label. Eliminate primaries - and at least open primaries - and you can all but eliminate this problem. Of course the case cited here shows that the GOP in Washington simply didn't do it's homework.

acludem

 

[tpahl]

Of course both parties have had questionable candidates. The real problem is that parties have no control over who runs under their label. Eliminate primaries - and at least open primaries - and you can all but eliminate this problem. Of course the case cited here shows that the GOP in Washington simply didn't do it's homework.

acludem

I agree that primaries need to be elliminated. Or at least the parties need to start funding them themselves. It is an outrage that taxpayers have to pay for these private organizations elections.

Travis

 

[5stringJeff]

In Washington state, we don't register as a D or R. Washingtonians, for some unexplained reason, think this is akin to giving out your SSN. So there is no central database of party voters. People simply declare themselves to be Ds or Rs when they file their candidacy paperwork. If, after the end of one week, there is no candidate for a party, the party chair at the county or state level may appoint someone. This is where Chris Vance screwed up. While this person may or may not be a Republican, I'm sure Vance would have thought twice about nominating him to run if he knew the guy's criminal record.
As far as primaries, we finally got it so that you have to declare your party at the polls and can only vote for one party's ticket, after the governor vetoed the Top Two Louisiana style primary. So now you tell the people at the polls that you want a D or R ballot, but your choice is not recorded.

 

[DKSuddeth]

In Washington state, we don't register as a D or R. Washingtonians, for some unexplained reason, think this is akin to giving out your SSN. So there is no central database of party voters. People simply declare themselves to be Ds or Rs when they file their candidacy paperwork. If, after the end of one week, there is no candidate for a party, the party chair at the county or state level may appoint someone. This is where Chris Vance screwed up. While this person may or may not be a Republican, I'm sure Vance would have thought twice about nominating him to run if he knew the guy's criminal record.
As far as primaries, we finally got it so that you have to declare your party at the polls and can only vote for one party's ticket, after the governor vetoed the Top Two Louisiana style primary. So now you tell the people at the polls that you want a D or R ballot, but your choice is not recorded.

are D and R your only choices in WA, or is there room for third parties?

 

[tpahl]

As far as primaries, we finally got it so that you have to declare your party at the polls and can only vote for one party's ticket, after the governor vetoed the Top Two Louisiana style primary. So now you tell the people at the polls that you want a D or R ballot, but your choice is not recorded.

You also have the choice of getting a Libertarian ballot since it is considered a major political party in Washington state. The problem however is with this new style primary, there is still a strong incentive for people to chose parties that they do not necessarily agree with to pick a candidate that they think will be easier for their party to defeat.

 

[tpahl]

are D and R your only choices in WA, or is there room for third parties?

http://www.leg.wa.gov/RCW/index.cfm?section=29A.04.086&fuseaction=section

There should be no discrimination between parties by law, but WA is not as bad as some states and the LP has overcome them to become a 'major party' by law here.

 

[Annie]

http://www.leg.wa.gov/RCW/index.cfm?section=29A.04.086&fuseaction=section

There should be no discrimination between parties by law, but WA is not as bad as some states and the LP has overcome them to become a 'major party' by law here.

I think there must be some 'rules', these seem fair.

 

[5stringJeff]

are D and R your only choices in WA, or is there room for third parties?

The Libertarians are considered a major party in our state; however, there are rarely primaries that feature more than one candidate from the L's on a ballot.

 

[DKSuddeth]

I think there must be some 'rules', these seem fair.

here in texas, one of the 'rules' for the presidential ballot is to have 50,000 signatures turned in by such and such date. this seems unfair to me.

 

[Annie]

here in texas, one of the 'rules' for the presidential ballot is to have 50,000 signatures turned in by such and such date. this seems unfair to me.

that may be, what's the date and % of pop. they are asking for?

 

[DKSuddeth]

that may be, what's the date and % of pop. they are asking for?

Independent candidates are required to collect at least 64,076 signatures by May 10 from registered voters who did not vote in the Democratic or Republican primaries. That equals 1 percent of all votes cast for president in the last election in Texas.

In contrast, third-party candidates needed to collect only 45,540 signatures by May 24