The state GOP suddenly faces a signature-gathering mess

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Rumors of GOP statewide candidates having problems with signature-gathering efforts broke out into the open Wednesday, as one campaign acknowledged they did not have enough signatures to make the primary ballot.

Anne Brensley, who won more than 50% of GOP party delegates at the convention in her campaign for lieutenant governor, told the Boston Globe that her campaign didn’t have enough to meet the 10,000 signature threshold.

You may not be surprised that someone who recently owed thousands of dollars in unpaid taxes – similar to something that sank a Democrat running for the same office 20 years ago – also experienced signature-gathering troubles.

But her campaign says there is more to the story, alleging that Joe Bronske, an operative they hired to help them pull in voters’ John Hancocks, forged some of Brensley’s nomination papers. Bronske didn’t respond to a request for comment.

“This isn’t the case of us running out of time and going, ‘Oops we didn’t make it.’ We were under the impression we had 13,000+ raw signatures,” said Jason Ross, Brensley’s campaign manager.

Like ballot question campaigners, some candidates have paid for signature-gatherers. It’s a time-consuming task, paid or unpaid, and the cost per signature for the paid can rise deeper into the election calendar. Auditor Diana DiZoglio, who needed 5,000 signatures for her race, was among the statewide candidates who paid this cycle, as did Attorney General Andrea Campbell, who shelled out $100,000 in April. (Campbell needed 10,000 signatures.)

Brensley, an attorney, plans to pursue legal action, Ross said. He added that the campaign is petitioning elections chief Bill Galvin for more time to gather signatures, even though they’re aware that the signature filing deadlines, which have already come and gone, are set in state law.

Extending or altering any candidate filing deadlines would require a court order, such as when the Supreme Judicial Court extended deadlines due to a global pandemic in 2020. (It would wreak havoc on the printing of the Republican primary ballots.)

Ross called the signature-gathering problems “unprecedented,” and said two other campaigns had also used Bronske: Peabody’s Anne Manning Martin, who is also running for lieutenant governor, and Lynnfield attorney Michael Walsh, who is running for attorney general. (Both Manning Martin’s campaign and Walsh, who is currently dealing with a jury trial out-of-state, separately said they were confident they had enough signatures.)

As the Brensley news ricocheted throughout the local political sphere, GOP candidate for governor Brian Shortsleeve used it to take aim at his rival, Mike Minogue, who had backed Brensley as his choice for lieutenant governor.

“This outcome proves two things: that Mike Minogue’s first major decision as a gubernatorial candidate is a complete failure, and that the Republican state convention is a poor judge of candidate quality and electability,” Shortsleeve spokesman Pat Nestor said in a statement. “Anne Brensley’s disqualification reinforces the importance of the primary to vet all the candidates.”

Minogue’s camp, which has sought to pretend there isn’t a primary by ignoring Shortsleeve, did not respond to a request for comment.

Ross said the Brensley camp isn’t ruling out a sticker campaign in the primary. Sticker campaigns face a minimum vote threshold – 10,000, the same as the number of required signatures for lieutenant governor – and if there are multiple candidates, they have to beat the others.

Trivia time: Which Massachusetts attorney general faced a GOP challenger after the Republican candidate made a successful write-in effort in a September primary? Bonus points for being able to name the GOP challenger. Send your answers to: [email protected].

HAPPENING TODAY

10:00 | Housing for Massachusetts, the ballot committee created to oppose the initiative petition that would impose statewide rent control, hosts a briefing featuring small property owners who will discuss how the question would impact their communities. Sen. Michael Moore also attends. | Room 428, State House, Boston

12:30 | Gov. Maura Healey tours the Jimmy Fund Clinic at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute before holding a press conference to announce her administration has finalized prior authorization reforms. HHS Secretary Kiame Mahaniah and Economic Development Secretary Eric Paley are among the attendees. | Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Dana Building, 44 Binney St., Boston

5:30 | MassINC hosts a celebration for its 30th anniversary. Guest speakers include Barr Foundation CEO Ali Noorani and former Boston Globe Editor Marty Baron. | 60 State St., Boston | Tickets

5:30 | Attorney General Andrea Campbell is the featured speaker at Bridgewater State University's graduate-level commencement ceremony. | Xfinity Center, Mansfield

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FROM BEACON HILL

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