DeWine foe may mount legal challenge to get on ballot

By William Hershey, Columbus Bureau

Updated 8:01 PM Monday, March 8, 2010

COLUMBUS — Hardin County attorney Steve Christopher is working on a legal challenge to a decision that kept him off the May 4 primary ballot and leaves former U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine of Cedarville unopposed for the Republican nomination for attorney general.

Christopher’s campaign on Monday, March 8, said that Christopher “intends to continue his campaign while the campaign works with legal sources to rectify the situation.”
Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner said last Friday that Christopher submitted just 788 signatures to qualify for the ballot and that only 638 were validated by county boards of elections. It takes 1,000 valid signatures to qualify for the ballot.

Christopher’s wife Jill, however, provided a copy of the petition filing form that Christopher received on Feb. 18 from Brunner’s office after submitting his petitions.
It said the “approximate number of petition signatures filed was 2,750.”

“Somewhere in the process, approximately 1,962 signatures were lost or misplaced,” Christopher’s campaign said in a press release. “There are many questions that need to be answered as to how or why something like this can occur in the secretary of state’s office.”

Jeff Ortega, Brunner’s spokesman, responded in an e-mail:

“Every candidate is issued a receipt. The number of signatures on that receipt is what the candidate ‘purports’ to submit. That information is provided by the candidate or the representative of the candidate.
“The work log shows the number of signatures that were sent out to the bipartisan boards of elections for verification as was done for every candidate. You can see the results of the verification done by these bipartisan boards of elections.”

Christopher, part of the Tea Party movement, entered the attorney general’s race in February after Delaware County Prosecutor Dave Yost, who had been favored by some conservatives, switched from the attorney general’s race to the auditor’s race.

Democratic incumbent Attorney General Richard Cordray is seeking re-election and Libertarian candidate Marc Allan Feldman also has qualified for the ballot.

Contact this reporter at (614) 224-1608 or whershey@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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