A Robinson Shut Out?
Jack E. Robinson III vows to stay in Massachusetts' Senate race - but if he does, he'll have done it the hard way.
Robinson - a young, black Republican abandoned by some Bay State GOP leaders after releasing a laundry list about his personal life - said Wednesday he has collected enough signatures to challenge incumbent Democrat Ted Kennedy in the fall.
A defiant Robinson also blasted top Massachusetts Republicans - among them Gov. Paul Cellucci - for withdrawing their endorsements of him.
"The party is being managed with frightening incompetence," said Robinson of the Bay State GOP.
To make the November ballot, the 39-year-old political newcomer needs 10,000 certified signatures. Robinson, a former Eastern Airlines executive-turned-cell phone entrepreneur - said he had submitted 13,000 signatures to town clerks by Tuesday's deadline. Massachusetts Secretary of State William Gavin said only 5,800 of those signatures have been certified so far.
"We feel highly confident that we will get on the ballot and we will have a Senate campaign here in Massachusetts," said Robinson.
But signatures can be challenged for many reasons. Candidates often try to collect at least twice as many as needed. Robinson's 13,000 signatures are seven-thousand short of that benchmark. The GOP Senate hopeful countered that he spent $100,000 and hired a professional firm to help him collect the signatures.
Bashing his own party, Robinson demanded the resignation of the state GOP chairman - and accused party insiders of trying to "torpedo" his campaign by urging activists not to support him.
In March, Robinson lost endorsements from a number of top Massachusetts Republicans after releasing a detailed 11-page personal history. In that document, Robinson outlined a drunken driving arrest of which he was eventually cleared - and a relationship with a girlfriend who got a restraining order against him.
On Wednesday, Massachusetts GOP executive director John Brockelman called Robinson's accusation "completely absurd." He said it was "sad that Mr. Robinson has chosen to lash out at others because his campaign lacks credibility and support."
And earlier in the week, Gov. Cellucci said of Robinson, "I still think there's some pretty big questions he's left unanswered."
An aide for Sen. Kennedy declined comment on Wednesday. Since the Democrat was first elected to the Senate seat held by his brother John F. Kennedy, he has always had a Republican opponent. But if Robinson fails to make the November ballot, Campaign 2000 would not only be the first time Ted Kennedy would run without a GOP challenger. It would also be the first time since 1916 - the first year that senators were elected by popular vote - that the Massachusetts GOP failed to field a Senate candidate at all.
Yet if that happens, Kennedy wouldn't be alone in the fall - a Libertarian and a Constitution Party candidate are still in te running.