U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Milwaukee) says she’ll take seriously an apparent primary election challenge from former state Senator Gary George, assuming he makes the ballot.
George served in the Legislature for more than 20 years, but he lost a recall election about a decade ago and later served time in federal prison for taking kickbacks. Since then, George has regained his law license and this week filed papers to run in the Democratic congressional primary against Moore.
Moore says she’s surprised George entered the race, but may be willing to debate him depending on the venue.
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“He is an opponent, and if there are legitimate sorts of meetings… But I just will not have my time being treated frivolously,” said Moore.
On Tuesday afternoon, it seemed there was a chance he wouldn’t even make the ballot after Government Accountability Board (GAB) staff recommended striking several hundred of George’s filed signatures, which would have left him 250 below the 1,000 needed.
“In general, it can be issues like, the form isn’t filled out correctly on the header or on the footer, it may not be dated correctly, or there may be a missing signature from the circulator – it could be that people who signed the petition didn’t legibly print their name,” said GAB spokesman Reid Magney at the time.
When the GAB released a list of registered candidates later that afternoon, however, George was listed as having 1,294 valid signatures. The GAB will hold a meeting to finalize the ballot at a meeting next Tuesday.
Editor’s Note: This broadcast version of this story aired before it was the GAB’s list of candidates was released.
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