SENATE CANDIDATE KEYSER MISSES BALLOT
Campaign says the GOP Senate hopeful will appeal ruling.
washington» State officials said Monday that U.S. Senate candidate Jon Keyser failed to collect enough signatures to earn a place on the June 28 primary ballot — a stunning blow that threatens to sink a campaign once hyped as the best in the Republican field.
Under state rules, Senate candidates who choose to petition their way onto the ballot must gather signatures from 1,500 or more voters in each of Colorado’s seven congressional districts — at least 10,500 in all.
Keyser fell short by 86 signatures in Colorado’s 3rd District, according to the Colorado secretary of state’s office, which reviewed his petition. The 3rd District is one of the state’s largest and comprises most of western Colorado.
Keyser’s campaign plans to protest the decision and has five days to do so. The 16,067 signatures he submitted overall allowed him to clear the threshold in the six other districts.
“We are confident that we secured the necessary number of signatures to appear on the ballot, and we will be pursuing legal action to ensure thousands of Coloradans are not disenfranchised,” said Matt Connelly, Keyser’s spokesman.
Keyser, a major in the Air Force Reserve, is out of state for most of the week. He left for Florida on Saturday to report for a short assignment with U.S. Southern Command, Connelly said.
Back home, the stakes for his campaign couldn’t be higher.
If Keyser’s challenge is unsuccessful, his bid to unseat U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., will end weeks before a single vote is cast in the June 28 primary — throwing a chaotic race for Senate into further disarray.
Only two Republican candidates so far have qualified to compete on the June 28 ballot: former CSU athletic director Jack Graham and El Paso County Commissioner Darryl Glenn.
Graham collected the necessary signatures and was certified last week; Glenn got on the ballot by earning enough support at the Republicans’ state convention.
Two other candidates — businessman Robert Blaha and former Aurora City Councilman Ryan Frazier — are waiting to see if they qualified.
Keyser’s failure, however, could be an ominous sign.
Because of a quirk in election law, a voter can sign his or her name to only one candidate in a race — meaning any signature used by Graham or even Keyser is off limits to Blaha and Frazier.
Keyser paid $140,250 on petition signatures to political consulting firm Clear Creek Strategies through the end of March — which amounted to 70 percent of his expenses this year, according to a Denver Post analysis of federal campaign finance reports.
Graham paid far more — $236,250 to Kennedy Enterprises.
The two candidates awaiting word on their petitions paid less than either. Frazier paid Blitz Canvassing $119,915 — 84 percent of his total expenditures this year.
Blaha paid Cycle A&M $125,980, of which he still owes $33,447 to the company.
As for Keyser, recent history suggests he has a chance of winning his appeal, although success is not guaranteed.
In 2012, Republican Eric Weissmann won a challenge to appear on the ballot after state officials ruled 614 of his signatures were invalid. He argued that clerical errors by his campaign voided signatures that were otherwise valid; a court later allowed him to fix those errors and make the ballot.