TPM: Indiana's Tamyra d'lppolito just told TPM she has enough signatures to get on the ballot

[flpoljunkie]

World of Hurt for Dems

Josh Marshall | February 16, 2010, 10:14AM

That until-now little known, minor candidate in the Indiana Democratic senate primary, Tamyra d'Ippolito, just told our Eric Kleefeld that she now has the requisite number of signatures to get on the primary ballot.

Bear in mind, the deadline for filing the signatures is today. So if d'Ippolito has the signatures and as long as too many of them aren't thrown out (a real question), that would leave her as the only name on the ballot in the Democratic primary, effectively making her the Democratic nominee. Holding this seat this year is going to be a serious challenge regardless of who they field. But observers don't seem to think d'Ippolito would have a shot even in the best of years.

The logical fallback for Dems is to consolidate around an alternative candidate and mount a write-in campaign. That's doable but not an easy road.

Another remaining question is what role if any Republicans may have played helping her get those signatures lined up on 18 hours notice.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2010/02/world_of_hurt_for_dems.php?ref=fpblg

[xchrom]

1. Fingers crossed. Nt

[prolesunited]

8. Why, because you want a Republican in the Senate?

[Myrina]

13. .. its probably going to happen anyway ...

.... Bayh was little more than a DINO on his best days, his name-recognition is the only thing that separated him from the (R)'s. Now at least when a real (R) is elected, we'll know what we're dealing with here rather than have to play guess-who's-side-I'm-on-today with Bayh.

[jenmito]

16. If you don't think it matters that we may have a majority leader McConnell, you're sadly mistaken.

[prolesunited]

20. I just don't understand why people here

refuse to get this point.

I live in Indiana. She may work in the metro areas, but there isn't a chance in hell she would win the state.

While I think it was rather underhanded to set it up to have the state machine pick the candidate, that's far more viable than her being the candidate. We would get trounced.

And, yes, I'm sure I would agree with her platform more than anything the state comes up with, but I also don't want to lose majority control of the Senate.

[Myrina]

24. I didn't say THAT didn't matter... sheesh ...

.... I said (SINCE I LIVE IN INDIANA & I DO PAY ATTENTION TO THESE THINGS), the seat is likely going R anyway, and at least now it will be an R that calls itself an R, rather than an R that calls itself a D - sometimes, and an R - sometimes, depending on which way the wind is blowing.

Get a grip. :eyes:

[LiberalFighter]

2. That would be bad news.

[secondwind]

3. Well, in reading the notes from Freeperville, posted here on DU, they are definitely

trying to get involved in putting d'Ippolito on the ballot....they think she is a "weak candidate"....

[Pirate Smile]

7. So is FDL. Birds of a feather.

[democraticinsurgent]

4. Probably not good news

I am not a fan of a closed process like what Bayh and the state party have planned here, but the result--a strong candidate--would be better for the Dems in the general election. I don't know much of anything about this woman, but almost any Republican is likely to destroy an unknown cafe owner from Bloomington.

[LiberalFighter]

5. If she makes it they will dig up her business problems.

[flpoljunkie]

6. Update: She 'doesn't have them yet, but would have them in time.'

Late Update: After telling TPM that she already had the necessary signatures collected, d'Ippolito is now denying to Greg Sargent that she has them yet, saying instead that she would have them in time.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/02/dippolito-i-have-enough-signatures-to-get-on-the-ballot-for-in-sen-dem-primary-ballot.php?ref=fpa

[vaberella]

17. Is there no worthwhile Dem in Indiana? n/t

[vaberella]

9. Is she a viable candidate we want in the Senate though, is my question.

Just because she's a Dem means nothing. Bayh is a Dem.

[democraticinsurgent]

10. No

Not from what I have read. She's completely unknown from the most liberal town in Indiana. Which, in itself, isn't so bad. But those who do know her are not writing very good things about her.

If she turns out to get enough signatures, this will be a major embarrassment for the Indiana Dems.

[vaberella]

11. Christ...then why are people so blooy excited?! n/t

[democraticinsurgent]

12. State Party Says She Only Has 22 signatures

Well this is getting mighty interesting.

In an interview with TPMDC, Indiana Democratic Party Chairman Dan Parker strongly denied that cafe owner Tamyra d'Ippolito has obtained the necessary ballot-petition signatures to appear on the ballot in the Dem primary for Senate -- disputing d'Ippolito's earlier claim to have to have obtained the 500 required in each of the state's nine House districts.

"I am monitoring the situation with our boards of voter registration and our county clerks' offices. Those are the places where petitions have to be submitted for certification," said Parker. "They have to be certified in the counties and then brought to the Secretary of State's office by Friday. As of this moment, other than Evan Bayh, there's one candidate, who is a Democratic candidate , who has 22 signatures statewide."

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/02/indiana-dem-chairman-no-dippolito-does-not-have-4500-ballot-signatures----she-has-22.php?ref=fpa

[Jennicut]

15. I bet she is full of baloney. She is not a viable candidate anyway.

A failed cafe owner.

[AwakeAtLast]

14. I'm watching 12:00 p.m. Indianapolis news

They reported that Dan Coats (R) put his paperwork in before the deadline. They made no mention of a Dem filing on time. Will investigate further.

[jenmito]

18. There's no "Breaking News" on this on MSNBC, either. n/t

[Dr.Phool]

19. TPM reports she didn't make it. 12:30 update.

Our Eric Kleefeld has spent the morning trying to make heads or tails of what's going down in Indiana, and while thing are still a bit hazy, it looks like Democrats have avoided ending up with a political unknown as their nominee for U.S. Senate.

Today is the deadline for prospective candidates for the Democratic primary to file with each county clerk the petitions required by law in order to appear on the ballot. Earlier this morning Tamyra d'Ippolito -- calling her a longshot is probably too generous -- told us she already had all the signatures she needed to qualify. But shortly thereafter she told Greg Sargent that she didn't really have them but she would have them by the noon deadline. Around that time, the state Democratic Party chairman, Dan Parker -- a close Bayh ally, it should be noted -- told us d'Ippolito wasn't even close to having enough signatures to qualify. By his count, she had 22 signatures filed statewide, out of the 4,500 the law requires.

Just now, after the noon filing deadline passed, Eric checked in with the clerk in Marion County -- the largest county in the state, where Indianapolis is located, which contains an entire congressional district. Indiana's qualifying law, like many state's, is byzantine. One requirement is that you have to have at least 500 signatures from each congressional district. The clerk tells us that d'Ippolito has filed a total of two signatures from residents of the congressional district wholly within Marion County. That would seem to end the d'Ippolito boomlet -- fueled partly by conservatives looking to cause trouble for Democrats -- before it even began, but we're still confirming the particulars.

--David Kurtz

[Jennicut]

21. I wonder why the discrepancy in the # of signatures being reported. Maybe she just hoped

more attention would help.

[flpoljunkie]

22. It's a rather bizarre discrepancy, to say the least.

[mr715]

23. Do we know anything about her? nt