To choose between him and the Iron Lady is no choice at all. Better luck in the future, Chester, and do your homework next time.
Posted on 06/13/2002 1:30:27 PM PDT by kinganamort
SARASOTA -- Republican congressional candidate Chester Flake dropped out of the 13th District race Wednesday because of a paperwork error that he says was engineered by his opponent, Katherine Harris.
Flake, 27, a computer consultant who has never held elected office, was on his way to the Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections office Wednesday morning to deliver a stack of 2,400 petition signatures when he ran into a friend.
Seeing the pile of petitions, Flake's friend asked him if he'd also remembered to turn in his "alternative method affidavit," required for candidates who seek to get on the ballot by collecting signatures.
Flake said he had never heard of such a thing. As a novice to public office, he said, he had repeatedly asked elections officials in Tallahassee and Sarasota what he needed to do to get on the ballot and had never been told about any affidavit.
"And the same person in charge of determining whether I get to run is the same person I'm running against," Flake said. "Does that seem right to you?"
When Flake arrived at the elections office, he was told that the thousands of signatures he'd collected were invalid without that affidavit. The filing deadline was six days away, and it took Flake a month and a half, he said, to get all the signatures. Short of paying a $9,000 filing fee, he was out of the race.
Flake blames Harris' office because, he says, he was neither told about the affidavit nor given the candidate qualifying handbook that had the affidavit in it.
"This is a terrible injustice," Flake said. "There are more than 2,000 people who wanted my name on the ballot, and now their voices won't be heard."
Harris' spokespersons in Tallahassee reviewed their records Wednesday afternoon and said they found correspondence showing that Flake had, in fact, been told he needed to file an affidavit.
Flake e-mailed elections officials in early 2001, asking if he could begin collecting signatures. Division of Elections official Connie Evans replied on Jan. 17, 2001, saying that Flake could not yet begin collecting signatures, and that, further, he needed to file that affidavit before doing so.
Flake said he did not recall receiving such an e-mail.
Elections officials said they would be able to provide a copy of it today.
"Mr. Flake appears to be laboring under the paranoid delusion that powerful forces have aligned against him, when he simply forgot to check his e-mail," said Harris' communications director, David Host.
"Now he expects the Division of Elections … to break the law" by exempting him. It's not the state's fault, Host said, that Flake's campaign "wound up canceled, like the 'X-Files.'"
Though Flake filed to run for Congress months before Harris did, he faced an uphill battle. Harris, nationally known for her role in the 2000 presidential election, has so far raised more than $1.7 million and spent less than half of that.
Flake said Wednesday that he hadn't raised any money. The $9,000 filing fee essentially knocked him out of the race.
"That's it; it's over," he said.
"Mr. Flake appears to be laboring under the paranoid delusion that powerful forces have aligned against him, when he simply forgot to check his e-mail," said Harris' communications director, David Host.
I didn't want a flake for congress anyhow. That freak thought he was an IT professional but his campaign site had more dead links than a yahoo graveyard. Hey Flakey! I cannot view an article on internet security that you have saved on your local network UNLESS I AM ON YOUR LOCAL NETWORK. This guy is, pathetically, not quite responsible enough to be a congressman.
Now, now. You are talking the world of Cynthia Mckinney, Maxine Waters and Henry Waxman. The word "responsible" does not apply.
To choose between him and the Iron Lady is no choice at all. Better luck in the future, Chester, and do your homework next time.
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Ouch! is right! AOL disks make good coasters, has anyone ever told you that?
Chris
But seriously, folks, this clown has no idea of how to GET A FRICKING LAWYER to make sure that the I's are dotted and the T's are crossed. Jesus God!
Be Seeing You,
Chris
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