Liberal council "candidate" Julian Beard doesn't need a campaign spokesman this year. He has the Lexington Herald-Leader.
Beard got 112 signatures on his campaign petition to run for the Fourth district Urban County Council seat. He only needed 100. But the law says names that appear on two candidates' petitions for the same race must be voided on both. There were fifteen such signatures on both Beard's and Bill Roberts' petitions. That leaves Beard with an insufficient 97 signatures. End of story, right?
Enter the Herald-Leader.
The headline screams "Dirty Tricks." The story follows with a focus on the "allegation" that Roberts purposely sought out fifteen people in order to invalidate his opponent's application.
Whether he did or not only really matters to the bonehead who thought 112 names was enough to survive the inevitable mistakes and, of course, duplications. And it matters to a certain newspaper determined to revive their left-wing agenda in Lexington.
The real problem from their perspective is that Bill Roberts is the former two-term chairman of the Republican Party of Fayette county and not a liberal.
A companion story explored the immediate desire to prevent another "Beard" in future elections. It looks like they are now calling this provision in the law a "loophole."
Beard would have avoided this whole mess if he had just rounded up a couple hundred more comrades to sign his little petition. Since he didn't, he wants to fight the law after the fact.
From the first story we learn Beard does not plan to withdraw his illegitimate candidacy. His attorney is even quoted trying to goad Roberts into challenging his petition. Fayette county clerk Don Blevins is quoted in the second story as saying only that he thought the law invalidating duplicate signatures was unfair.
It is still the law Mr. Blevins. See that you follow it and send Mr. Beard packing. While I can't fathom the rationale for prolonging the 97=100 math from the locals, their desperation and disregard for inconvenient laws certainly is familiar.
