Republican candidates for Lt. Gov. and Attorney General, Anne Manning Martin and Michael Walsh, will not appear on the September ballot following a Friday ruling by the State Ballot Law Commission, which found the two did not gather the required amount of signatures to qualify after falling victim to a fraud scheme.
The decision shakes up the Republican primary race for Lt. Gov. as Shawn Oliver — who is running with gubernatorial candidate Brian Shortsleeve — will be the only Republican left on the ballot. With Walsh now off the ballot, Attorney General Andrea Campbell is now running unopposed for reelection.
The SBLC found that while both Walsh and Manning Martin submitted the required 10,000 signatures by the state deadline, they both had enough signatures that could not be certified to put them below this benchmark. Manning Martin was found to have 1,279 bad signatures out of the 10,662 she submitted, while Walsh was found to have 1,021 bad signatures out of the 10,677 he handed in.
Manning Martin tells the Herald that she plans on appealing the decision.
“The appeal will provide an opportunity for the evidence and the law to receive the center stage they deserve rather than blatant political agendas,” Manning Martin said in a written statement.
The Herald has sent an email request to Walsh requesting comment on the ruling.
Meanwhile, Shawn Oliver is celebrating the ruling, which will see him face off against Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll in the November election after originally running against Manning Martin and fellow failed Republican candidate Anne Brensley — who also is disqualified from the ballot due to the fraudulent signature scheme.
“The Ballot Commission reviewed the mountain of evidence and arrived at the only possible conclusion. Now it is time for Republicans and independents to get behind the only unified Republican ticket for Governor and Lieutenant Governor and set our sights on defeating Maura Healey and Kim Driscoll to make Massachusetts affordable for working families,” Oliver’s campaign said.
Hundreds of signatures submitted by both Manning Martin and Walsh were found to have been written in the same hand, were signed by people who were not eligible to be registered, and even included the signatures of some dead people.
“The Respondent, Ann Manning Martin, a Republican candidate for Lieutenant Governor, timely filed with the Secretary of the Commonwealth nomination papers containing 10,662 certified signatures. To qualify as a candidate for Lieutenant Governor, the Respondent needed to file at least 10,000 certified signatures,” the SBLC said in its decision, adding that 1,279 of the signatures submitted by Manning Martin could not be certified, therefore disqualifying her from the ballot.
Incredibly, Manning Martin, Brensley and Walsh were found to have hundreds of the exact same signatures in the exact same order on their voter lists. Brensley testified to confirm this during the hearing.
“Ms. Brensley observed that, not only were the names on her nomination papers identical to the names appearing on the Bronske voters list, but the same names on her nomination papers and the Respondent’s nomination papers were in the exact same order on the numerous nomination papers submitted to the Weymouth Town Clerk,” the SBLC wrote.
“Ms. Brensley further noticed that some of the names on her nomination papers, which also appeared on the spreadsheet, were for voters who had died before the date her nomination papers were circulated for signature collection,” it said.
Oliver had filed as an objector against Manning Martin while Adam Roof, representing the Massachusetts Democratic Party, filed on his own. The SBLC granted Roof and Oliver the right to combine their cases into one during the hearing. Roof filed as the sole objector to Walsh appearing on the ballot.
The Republican signature snafu all started when Brensley announced that she had been defrauded by Republican consultant Joe Bronske
Brensley’s campaign is considering taking legal action against Bronske, who they call a “Republican insider” who they believe participated in “the largest electoral fraud scandal” in state history.
Brensley’s team says that based on several recommendations to hire him, they wound up tasking Bronske with collecting signatures primarily on the South Shore and Metro South areas, including Weymouth, Hanover, Braintree, Rockland and Easton, sharing one of the final updates Bronske gave the campaign.
“We are officially at 6,203 signatures for Anne Brensley! I project we are going to be turning in a grand total of 7,000 new signatures,” Bronske told the campaign in an April 30 email update. “I also received a deposit for $5,000.00 yesterday bringing the total to $15,000.00 received by the campaign so far. We are outstanding with $15,000.00 as of today. With 7,000 signatures you are looking at approximately $35,000.00 in a grand total.”
Brensley’s campaign told the Herald that Bronske sent the $15,000 he collected back after the fraud concerns were raised.
The Herald had reached out to Bronske when the story broke in May, but has not heard back.
