Presidential primary day, February 5th, should be a banner day for potential '08 local-office candidates to get nominating signatures. Stand outside polling places with your clipboard, and you're guaranteed a steady stream of registered voters with at least some interest in the political process.
Unfortunately, Secretary of State William Galvin will not be making nominating papers available until February 6th. Sorry folks!
To be fair, Galvin's election schedule said that nomination papers
would be available by Feb. 12 at the latest, so he's not technically late. But that was drawn up prior to the state moving the
Presidential primary forward to Feb. 5. I've heard, anecdotally, that some incumbents and challengers have been bugging Galvin's office for a while now about wanting those forms before next Tuesday. Could it have been that difficult?
And the news that the papers will be available the
very next day sure makes it look deliberate, doesn't it?
The delay will hurt potential challengers, who typically have a much harder time getting signatures than incumbents -- they lack the manpower, the organization, the name-recognition, etc. Since the vast majority of incumbents around here are Democrats, and Galvin is a Democrat, well.... let's just say it doesn't look good.
Candidates for district or county offices -- state rep, etc -- are due by April 29. Federal and state-wide candidates -- US Congress, etc. -- are due May 6. State rep candidates need 150 signatures, and state senate wannabes need 300; sounds easy, but try it sometime. Most county offices require 1000. US Congress, 2000. And Jim Ogonowski (or Ed O'Reilly) needs 10,000 to get on the ballot for US Senate against John Kerry.
Intentional or not, Galvin has now made the task considerably more difficult.