Here we go again.
Infighting continues among the Massachusetts Republican Party and statewide GOP candidates, this time over Lt. Gov. candidate Shawn Oliver, a Republican, for working with the Massachusetts Democratic Party to disqualify fellow GOP candidate Anne Manning Martin from the September ballot after she fell victim to a signature collection fraud scheme.
Republican candidate for governor Brian Shortsleeve held a press conference Tuesday outside the State House, coming to the defense of his running mate Oliver while slamming the MassGOP and his primary competitor Mike Minogue.
“For years, Republicans have said that election integrity matters. We were right. So when the ballot law commission found that roughly 1,200 fraudulent signatures had been submitted by the other candidates for lieutenant governor, this should have been easy. The evidence was overwhelming,” Shortsleeve said to reporters at the State House steps.
“Republicans should have condemned it immediately. Instead, Mike Minogue and insiders and leaders at the MassGOP attacked me and my running mate, Shawn Oliver. Mike Minogue went so far as to say that calling out signature fraud was, and I quote, ‘shameful,’ ” Shortsleeve continued. “Think about that. Not the fraud, not the cheating, not the people responsible. Instead, they attack the candidates who had the courage to say fraud is wrong no matter who is doing it. That tells you everything. This has never been about principle. It’s about protecting the political establishment.”
Manning Martin and Attorney General candidate Michael Walsh will not appear on the September ballot following a Friday ruling by the State Ballot Law Commission (SBLC), which found the two did not gather the required amount of signatures in order to qualify after falling victim to a fraud scheme.
Oliver had filed as an objector against Manning Martin with Adam Roof, representing the Massachusetts Democratic Party, filing on his own. The SBLC granted Roof and Oliver the right to combine their cases into one during the hearing. Roof filed as the sole objector to Walsh appearing on the ballot.
“It is disappointing to see Brian Shortsleeve attacking the Republican Party he is seeking to represent on Beacon Hill,” MassGOP Chair Amy Carnevale told the Herald in response to Shortsleeve’s press conference. “In criticizing the party, Brian is dismissing our grassroots, who made up the 70% of delegates who supported Mike Minogue for Governor at the convention. Legal maneuvering with Democrats to clear the field for one candidate without allowing voters to have their choice does our voters a huge disservice.”
Carnevale last week in a letter to the state committee had called out “some Republicans” who “devoted their time and resources” to an effort that removed a fellow GOP candidate from the ballot.
“Rather than focusing on defeating Democrats and expanding our Party’s reach, they devoted their time and resources to an effort that ultimately removed a Convention qualified candidate from the ballot,” Carnevale said in the letter.
Shortsleeve responded with a counterattack on the state’s Republican Party, calling it “hopelessly incompetent and ineffective,” when asked by a reporter if he has ever felt supported by the MassGOP.
“I’m running my own race, we’re gonna win this race, we’re out traveling all over the state, we are raising more money than anyone else in this campaign, and that’s what we’re going to do between now and September 1st. I think the MassGOP has demonstrated over the past week or two their inability to lead on this issue, and it really speaks for itself,” Shortsleeve said.
Meanwhile, Minogue slammed both Oliver and Shortsleeve, calling it “shameful” for anyone “to oppose unifying to win” in a written statement to the Herald.
“It is shameful that anyone would oppose unifying to win, but unfathomable that anyone would join arms with bad actors to block the democratic process,” Minogue said.
This comes as Massachusetts RNC Committee members Brad Wyatt and Janet Fogarty said Oliver and Shortsleeve demonstrated “the willing coordination and collusion with the Massachusetts Democratic Party,” in a letter to the Republican State Committee on Friday and co-signed by over 20 committee members.
“The hypocrisy being demonstrated by Minogue and his MassGOP minions will do lasting damage to the Republican Party’s attempts to improve election security and generate more confidence in election outcomes,” Shortsleeve added. “Republicans deserve a nominee who believes election integrity is a serious enough issue that it is worth defending.”
Hundreds of signatures submitted by both Manning Martin and Walsh were found to have been written in the same hand, were signed by people who were not eligible to be registered, and even included the signatures of some dead people.
Manning Martin, Brensley and Walsh were even found to have hundreds of the exact same signatures in the exact same order on their voter lists. Brensley testified to confirm this during the hearing.
The SBLC ruling shakes up the Republican primary race for lieutenant governor as Oliver is now the only Republican left on the ballot after originally running against Manning Martin and fellow failed Republican candidate Anne Brensley — who also is disqualified from the ballot due to the fraudulent signature scheme. With Walsh off the ballot, Attorney General Andrea Campbell is now running unopposed for reelection.
The Herald has requested comment from the Minogue campaign.