DENVER | A Denver District Court judge ruled Thursday, May 5, that Colorado Springs businessman Robert Blaha should appear on the Republican primary ballot for U.S. Senate after a tangled web of legal actions resulted in a sufficient number of valid petition signatures.
The fate of former Aurora city councilman Ryan Frazier, who is also running to dethrone incumbent Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet, remains unclear.
In a clarifying court ruling issued May 5, Denver District Court Judge Elizabeth Starrs wrote that Secretary of State Wayne Williams must accept 87 signatures collected by James Day, a petitioner for the Blaha campaign in the state’s 3rd Congressional District. That mandate pushed Blaha’s total number of valid petition signatures over the threshold required to make the ballot in that district. Senate candidates were required to gather at least 1,500 valid signatures from registered voters affiliated with the candidate’s political party in each of the state’s seven congressional districts.
Starrs’ order clarified a previous ruling issued late Wednesday that told the Secretary of State to accept previously rejected signatures for the Blaha campaign, but neglected to rule on those signatures gathered by Day. That ambiguity caused yet another hold-up in a primary race already mired in red tape. Under state law, the Secretary of State was supposed to have certified the primary ballot last month.
“I’m thrilled to be on the ballot after a very long week,” Blaha said in a statement.
Amid the ballot uncertainty, Blaha called for the Secretary of State’s resignation late Wednesday, citing incompetency.
“I spoke out so strongly regarding the Secretary of State because this process is a perfect example of bureaucracy run amok,” Blaha said in a statement. “When I represent the people of our state as their next U.S. Senator, Coloradans will see conservative leadership, a willingness to speak out, and boldness in my actions.”
In a separate court motion also filed Thursday morning, lawyers for the Frazier campaign called for the court to hold off on certifying the primary ballot yet again, this time until Monday, May 9. The request comes so that Frazier and his staffers can have their appeal of a previous ruling heard in hopes of securing more valid signatures from the candidate’s petitions.
The Secretary of State’s office has indicated that it will fight the additional stay, according to a tweet sent by Secretary of State spokeswoman Lynn Bartels.
In the meantime, Frazier, who is represented in court by Geoffrey Blue and former Secretary of State Scott Gessler, has asked the court to place his name on the ballot so that voters can elect him in the event the court finds that he has, in fact, collected a sufficient number of valid signatures. According to Frazier’s filing, no votes would be counted for him if his appeal fails and he does not secure enough valid petition signatures.
In the court ruling issued Wednesday regarding Frazier’s signatures, it appeared that the former city councilman remains about 70 signatures short of hitting the threshold needed in CD3 to make the ballot.
Originally, Blaha had failed to hit the the necessary signature threshold in the 1st, 3rd and 6th congressional districts. Frazier came up short in CD1, CD2, CD3 and CD6.
The recent appeals by the Frazier and Blaha campaigns mirrored the route taken by former state Rep. Jon Keyser, whose petition signatures were also initially deemed insufficient. Despite claims of forged signatures among Keyer’s petitions, an April 29 ruling by a Denver judge solidified his spot on the primary ballot.
Blaha and Frazier’s chances were kept alive by a May 1 ruling by a Denver judge, ordering the Secretary of State to hold off on finalizing the Republican ballot for U.S. Senate until May 4, giving both candidates time to appeal the insufficiency ruling. Officials from both campaigns spent the past week reviewing rejected petition signatures to prepare their legal challenge.
El Paso County Commissioner Darryl Glenn and former CSU athletic director Jack Graham previously secured spots on the U.S. Senate primary ballot: Glenn was the lone candidate to earn a spot at the Republican state convention, and Graham was the first candidate to successfully petition onto the ballot.