Maybe, as Oregon Secretary of State Bill Bradbury and his staff considered the complaint filed last Friday against Mary Starrett, the name Douglas Patterson came up as well. If it did, it easily could have prompted the line of though that led to a decision keeping Starrett on the general election ballot for governor.
On Friday attorney Kelly Clerk, representing three northwest Oregon clients, filed a complaint with the secretary of state’s office. He said that the Constitution Party of Oregon, which nominated Starrett for governor, had not followed proper procedures in offering notice of its upcoming nominating convention. Whether it did or not remains in dispute. Assuming the secretary of state’ s office also perceived a violation, Clark wrote, it should strike Starrett from the ballot, as having been improperly nominated.
Starrett has some strategic political significance here. Her odds of actually coming close to winning are not good – most political observers probably would agree (she would not) that she will get more than 1% but less than 10% of the vote, well less than Democratic incumbent Ted Kulongoski or Republican nominee Ron Saxton. But her presence on the ballot as a skilled candidate and as a more-conservative alternative to Saxton creates problems for the Republicans, and if the race otherwise is close, she could cost him the win. May not turn out that way, but it’s a plausible scenario.
Bradbury’s decision was that whether or not procedures were violated, candidates should not be thrown off the ballot as a result. If the party really screwed up, some form of sanction might be considered – a fine, for instance – but the candidates shouldn’t be barred.
All of which has led to Starrett and the Constitution Party accusing Saxton or his backers of being behind the ballot challenge (no hard evidence of that has developed), and Republicans accusing Democrat Bradbury of giving Starrett a break.
In the process, everyone forgot about Douglas Patterson. And Dean Wolf.
He was another candidate nominated by the Constitution Party convention, for the 5th district congressional seat; Wolf is his counterpart in the 1st district. The question, unasked publicly: If Starrett should be thrown from the ballot, should not too Patterson and Wolf? And two state Senate candidats, Robert Simmering in District 16 and John Pivarnik in District 17?
Expand on that a bit. Why should the make-a-mistake-and-bar-the-candidates principle apply only to minor parties? Suppose the Democratic Party found a legal glitch in the way the Republicans processed their party’s business, should that be grounds for throwing all the Republican candidates off the ballot? (Or, of course, switch the parties if you like.)
It’s not hard to see how quickly mischief can develop from this approach. The state law doesn’t specify what sort of action should be imposed if a party failed to jump through its bureaucratic hoops, but something aimed more directly at a party’s structure would seem more appropriate.
Meantime, Starrett and her allies have something to be really, personally, steamed about.
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