Holtzman vows effort isn't dead

Owens asks GOP hopeful to bow out, unite party

Stuart Steers, Rocky Mountain News

Published June 3, 2006 at midnight

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A defiant Marc Holtzman vowed Friday to fight his way onto the Republican primary ballot, saying he has enough valid signatures to carry on his challenge to Congressman Bob Beauprez for the party's nomination for governor.

"Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated," said Holtzman, paraphrasing Mark Twain.

On Thursday, Colorado Secretary of State Gigi Dennis dropped a bomb on Holtzman's campaign, saying he had not collected enough signatures to win a spot on the ballot. Dennis said that Holtzman had failed to get the signatures of at least 1,500 Republican voters in two congressional districts, the minimum requirement under the law.

Gov. Bill Owens and much of the Colorado Republican establishment breathed a sigh of relief, believing Holtzman's upstart campaign was at an end. Owens and most other Republican office holders are supporting Beauprez, and many of them see Holtzman's candidacy as a threat to Republican success in November.

On Friday, Owens urged Holtzman - who once served in his cabinet as secretary of technology - to abandon his bid for governor and support Beauprez.

"I think it's clear that Bob Beauprez is going to be the Republican nominee," he said.

Owens said Holtzman mentioned in a recent speech that the governor was his friend and mentor, and as such Owens urged him to listen to his advice and bow out.

"I urge him to now unite the Republican Party and push for a win in the November election," he said.

But Holtzman made it clear Friday he is not going away quietly. He said his campaign is certain they have enough valid signatures to qualify for the ballot, and they will spend the next several days making their case to Dennis. Holtzman insists that most of the 9,219 signatures that Dennis ruled were invalid are in fact legitimate, and he said that should more than make up for the 743 signatures he still needs to win a spot in the Aug. 8 primary.

"We have earned the right to be on the ballot," he said.

Under the law, Holtzman has until Tuesday to formally challenge Dennis' ruling. If he fails in that effort, he could take the issue to court and ask a judge to allow him onto the ballot. Holtzman said he will do exactly that if he has to.

"The courts in this country have always made the presumption that ballot access is a good thing," he said.

In 1980, the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, Mary Estill Buchanan, petitioned her way onto the ballot, and Holtzman noted that she had to carry her fight through the courts, earning a spot just a few days before the primary.

Holtzman campaign workers plan to spend the weekend going over the petitions as they prepare to challenge Dennis' ruling. Most of the petitions were circulated by paid signature gatherers who earned $7 for each signature obtained.

"Our petition effort was almost flawless," said Bob Gould, who took over as Holtzman's campaign manager last week. "We're supremely confident we provided more than double the required signatures in almost every district."

Gould said the campaign had verified that most of the signatures were from registered Republicans before the ballots were submitted. He also said he expected the signatures to be challenged.

"The reality is that the petition process includes what we're going through now," he said.

While Holtzman insists his campaign will prevail and win a spot on the ballot, others say that's unlikely.

"It's sounds to me like he's got an awfully steep hill to climb," said John Straayer, a political science professor at Colorado State University.

"The courts have upheld some challenges where a judge finds the voters' signatures meet what I call a reasonableness test," Straayer said. "But even if some of those (voters) did register late and it took a while for it to come through the system, it would be unlikely to be enough signatures to qualify."

Holtzman had to petition onto the ballot after failing to win 30 percent of the vote at the state Republican assembly on May 20. Under the law, he had to gather 10,500 signatures of Republican voters, with 1,500 from each of Colorado's seven congressional districts. Dennis said he failed to meet that threshold in the 1st Congressional District in Denver and the 7th Congressional District in the north suburbs.

Holtzman's attorney questioned the competence of the temporary election season workers hired by the secretary of state to verify ballot signatures.

"We're certainly going to want to make sure that the secretary's temporary employees, who are not election pros and for whom this is an excursion rather than a profession, did everything they needed to do," said Mark Grueskin, a Democrat who often represents his party in legal matters.

Holtzman's campaign has been bedeviled by staff turnover that may have hurt his effort. Last month his campaign manager, Dick Leggitt, resigned after admitting he had made up polling numbers and given them to a newspaper reporter. Holtzman also has lost his treasurer, finance chairman and a field director in the past few months.

"What that campaign really needs is organization," said Stephanie Strine, Holtzman's former press secretary who left earlier this spring. "With all the changes in leadership, it's really hard to get people motivated."

Strine said many Holtzman campaign workers were distressed by constant upheaval among the staff.

Signatures: In or out?

Marc Holtzman turned in 21,094 signatures in his attempt to petition onto the August primary ballot. Secretary of State Gigi Dennis rejected 9,129 of them. Holtzman will protest her decision on three issues:

Names not in database

• The secretary of state rejected 4,239 signatures, nearly 20 percent of the signatures Holtzman filed, because there was "no known Congressional District."

• Holtzman's campaign says the secretary of state's staff didn't try hard enough. The secretary of state had her employees enter only the name listed. The campaign plans to cross-check the address listed with driver's license and other public records.

Petition circulators in question

• Signatures were rejected if the person circulating the petition was not a registered Republican or if the circulator did not fill out their own name, address, county, date and time.

• Holtzman's campaign says the secretary of state does not have the most up-to-date records and might not know if the circulators registered recently. Holtzman also argues that if a circulator failed to write in their home county, for example, that should not invalidate the voters' will.

• The secretary of state's office agrees with the candidate. "Marc Holtzman may be able to have those corrected at a protest hearing," said Dana Williams, the secretary of state's spokeswoman.

Temporary workers

• The secretary of state hired temporary employees and had them work through the Memorial Day weekend to check the signatures against the voter lists.

• The Holtzman campaign questions how careful the temporary workers were.

Staff writers Alan Gathright and April M. Washington contributed to this story. steerss@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-2282

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