It’ll be another couple of weeks before Colorado Republicans know who their primary candidates in the governor’s race are — or how many there are.
It’s possible that four candidates could vie for the chance to challenge Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper in the June 24 primary.
The race continued to take shape on Monday as 2006 candidate Bob Beauprez turned in more than 21,000 signatures to the Secretary of State’s office.
He’s the second GOP gubernatorial candidate to turn in signatures that must be verified by the office. 2010 American Constitution Party candidate Tom Tancredo turned in 15,000 signatures on Thursday.
Today is the deadline for petitions to be submitted.
Statewide candidates need a minimum of 10,500 signatures, with 1,500 from each of Colorado’s seven congressional districts.
Five other candidates hope to get 30 percent of the delegates at the April 12 state Republican assembly in Boulder to make the primary ballot.
One other GOP candidates, Steve House, also took out petitions. His campaign hasn’t returned calls about whether it will submit signatures today. UPDATE: The Denver Post reports House will go the assembly route.
Roni Bell Sylvester, another candidate who originally filed to submit signatures, will instead go through the assembly, her husband, Chuck Sylvester, said Monday.
“Right now, as we speak, she’s over in Grand Junction” campaigning, he said Monday morning.
Three other Republican candidates — state Sen. Greg Brophy, Secretary of State Scott Gessler and former Senate minority leader Mike Kopp — also will lobby for 30 percent of assembly votes needed to make the June 24 primary ballot.
The numbers mean that not all seven candidates will qualify for the ballot.
Here are some possible scenarios, ranked by likelihood:
Four candidates make the ballot. Tancredo and Beauprez appear to have run organized petition drives. Brophy’s endorsement by Rocky Mountain Gun Owners and Gessler’s strength in the March 4 caucuses indicate they are likely to get the 30 percent needed to make the ballot.
Three candidates make the ballot. If Tancredo doesn’t have enough valid signatures, he can still go through the assembly. He’d likely bump either Brophy or Gessler out of the 30-percent club. This assumes Beauprez will have enough valid signatures to make the ballot.
Two candidates make the ballot. Tancredo fails to get enough verified signatures, but Beauprez does. That leaves six candidates competing at the assembly. This scenario depends on overwhelming assembly support for only one of the remaining candidates — probably Tancredo. But it’s more likely that assembly delegates will be more divided.
Five candidates make the ballot. This is the pie-in-the-sky alternative. It would have Tancredo and Beauprez in gathering enough valid signatures. Then three of the five remaining candidates would have to garner 30 percent each of the assembly delegates. Unlikely, but fun to imagine for political junkies who like good horserace.
The governor’s race isn’t the only one impacted by today’s petition deadline.
In the 4th Congressional District race to succeed U.S. Senate candidate and U.S. Rep. Cory Gardner, Steve Laffey and Barbara Kirkmeyer submitted petition signatures., along with two other congressional candidates. Three of nine state House candidates had turned in their petitions by mid-afternoon. And seven state House candidates submitted petitions, including three in House District 20 in Colorado Springs.
Clarification: This post was updated to clarify that candidates who successfully collect enough petition signatures don’t need to be nominated at the state assembly. If they are nominated, they would be required to receive 10 percent of the assembly vote.
Sorry, folks, but Bobby here is a birther. He is SO paranoid and distrustful that he at least sAYS that he doesn’t believe the president was even born in this country. He actually believes the whole “at BIRTH his parents falsified his birth certificate because they KNEW he would be president someday” nonsense.
Is THIS the kind of judgement you want in the highest office in the state? If so, you really have to question your own SANITY. I certainly question your sanity.