Posted on 02/15/2010 9:25:44 PM PST by ksm1
A Bloomington, Ind., restaurant owner who had been running an obscure and uphill challenge against Sen. Evan Bayh for the Democratic nomination claimed Monday that she’s just 1,000 signatures short of qualifying for the ballot.
In an interview with POLITICO, Tamyra D'Ippolito said that after news broke Monday morning that Bayh was retiring, her campaign contacted Democratic officials in Indiana to request they help her get the needed signatures by noon Tuesday — when they must be verified by the state’s 92 country registrars.
It would be something close to a nightmare scenario for Democrats: were D’Ippolito to qualify for the ballot, she would be the likely nominee and the party would be left to face the GOP with a political neophyte who said she is running in part to take on a party establishment she said practices “sexism with a big S.”
It’s precisely what Bayh had hoped to avoid. By disclosing his retirement one day before the filing deadline, the idea was that no Democrat would qualify for the primary ballot and the party’s state central committee could tap their favored candidate.
It was not possible to verify D’Ippolito’s claim about how many signatures she’s collected. To qualify for the statewide ballot in Indiana, candidates need 500 verified voter signatures from each of the state’s nine congressional districts.
But in the mad scramble following Bayh’s surprise decision, worried Democrats in Washington and Indianapolis were taking the prospect seriously.
“This would be a complete and unmitigated disaster,” said a leading Democrat in the state. “We’d be up sh—’s creek.”
This Indianapolis-based Democrat was in contact with senior party officials in Bloomington on Monday and had begun calling around to registrars in the state’s population centers to determine whether D’Ippolito had filed her petitions yet.
Simultaneously, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee’s political director, Martha McKenna, contacted D’Ippolito on Monday “asking for information about me,” the candidate said.
But D’Ippolito said she had not yet been urged by any Democrat to stop collecting signatures and withdraw.
“They know me too well,” she said. “That won’t work well with me.”
She said she was committed to the race in part because she was sick of the male-dominated Democratic Party in the state.
“It’s very much an old boys club in Indiana and I’m out to break it,” she said.
Before hanging up she added that she wanted to offer a “reminder:” “Indiana is 52 percent women.”
D’Ippolito also suggested that Bayh’s announcement was timed so that the state’s top Democratic officials could hand-pick his successor.
“I don’t know if they’re smoking cigars there, but the decision has already been made,” she said.
The owner of the Ragazzi Art Café in Bloomington, a liberal enclave that is home to Indiana University, D’Ippolito ran the 2006 primary campaign of a Democrat who lost to Rep. Baron Hill. But this is the first time she has run for office.
A colon cancer survivor, she launched a liberal challenge against Bayh in November in part over healthcare.
D’Ippolito said she was working diligently to get the needed signatures but was still lagging, especially in the 8th District which is in the southwest corner of the state.
She said she wasn’t certain she’d qualify because, as she put it, Bayh-backing Democratic officials “have been stonewalling us for four months.”
A DSCC official conceded that after the Bayh shocker they were still trying to determine who exactly D’Ippolito was and whether she could qualify.
“I’m told it’s unlikely she gets this done,” said the official, more hopeful than confident.
Conservative and liberal activists, with varying motives, also began to rally around D'Ippolito Monday.
The liberal blog Firedoglake offered a friendly write-up and a link to her petitions.
And conservatives saw it as an opportunity to wreak havoc among their foes.
"This could be fun," wrote RedState blogger Erick Erickson. "Those of you in Indiana should go out of your way to help Tamyra get the signatures he needs by tomorrow at noon."
Check out the lady's website, which has a link to the signature petition: http://tamyraforsenate.com/
PING
I’m familiar with that town.
A Bloomington, Ind., restaurant owner= BIG LIBERAL FLAKE.
All the Indiana people need to hit the internet, Indiana blogs, email people, volunteer, do what you have to do.
bump
WAY too liberal for the state of IN. Bayh was a legacy, a very handsome man, and was surprisingly good at hiding most of the farthest-left positions he held. She has none of the above. She has no chance to win a Senate seat in Indiana... So go on girl! ;^)
HURRY!
The forms have to be turned in to the county offices by noon tomorrow. I’m going by the local college campus to see if I can get some signatures tomorrow morning.
If you live in Indiana, sign her petitions. Get her on the ballot since she was willing to run in the primary against a sitting Senator with $13 million in the bank.
The Dems shouldn’t get to handpick a successor candidate.
Evan Bayh voted with Obama on every critical vote and I don’t buy that he had this election wrapped up, I think Gov Mitch Daniels or Rep Mike Pence would have been the best 2 candidates but former Senator Coats served 2 terms and Rep Hostettler served 4 terms I believe. They would have given him a closer contest than the so called 20 point margin he claims to have now.
Remember Senator Torricelli/Lautenberg switch after the deadline. They could poll test a successor and if he/she doesn’t work out or bad info comes out could keep picking different candidates to the find the one that works for them.
But that strategy would go out the window if this lady makes the ballot. Doubt she would quit once her name is on the ballot unless her only goal was to not have Bayh run.
Hope she can pull it off even though she is a D. Seeing Bayh’s political trick to save the seat for another Dem blow up in his face would be AWESOME.
Ladies and gentlemen, Operation: Chaos has hereby been re-authorized.
yeah, it worked so well the last time. “Oh they’ll never elect Obama. he has zero experience and a leftist ideologue.”
d’Ippolito got the required 4500 votes and they are being recorded. She will be running for U.S. Senate in Indiana.
OK, we’ll see how it goes.
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