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GAB STAFF RECOMMEND ALLOWING 'PROTEST CANDIDATES' TO RUN
WPR News - GAB staff recommend allowing 'protest candidates' to run
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Tuesday April 17, 2012
by Shawn Johnson
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(MADISON) Staff at Wisconsin's elections agency are recommending that Republicans be allowed to run six candidates as Democrats in the upcoming round of recall elections. The board will make a final decision Tuesday. (4/17)
In a memo to the six former judges who sit on the Government Accountability Board, staff attorneys wrote that there is nothing in state law that prevents someone from seeking a party's nomination even though the party does not support them.
In this case, it's six Republicans who were recruited by the Republican Party to run for office as Democrats in four state senate recalls and in the recall contests for governor and lieutenant governor. The move is all about timing in the Senate races. Fielding the candidates lets Republicans force primaries. That means the general elections for state Senate won't be on the same day that Democrats turn out en masse to pick their gubernatorial nominee.
Democrats contend the move is illegal, saying these Republicans broke state election law when they lied on nomination papers. Elections staff wrote in a memo that depending on one's political perspective, the candidates might be viewed as, "justified, clever, mischievous or misleading." But, the memo continues, "Board staff cannot determine that they are illegal."
The board itself makes the final call at its meeting later Tuesday.
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