April 06, 2018 01:48 PM UTC

Walker Stapleton Makes Primary Ballot...Barely

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• by: Colorado Pols

The Colorado Secretary of State’s (SOS) office announced this afternoon that Republican Walker Stapleton submitted just enough valid signatures to get his name on the June Primary ballot in the race for Governor.

Here’s the district-by-district breakdown of Stapleton’s petition signatures, which shows a validity rate of about 59%. In order to qualify for the Primary ballot, candidates for Governor need 1,500 valid signatures from each of Colorado’s seven Congressional districts (for a total of 10,500). The SOS office counted 11,325 valid signatures for Stapleton, and it was a close call in two congressional districts: CD1 (1,589) and CD7 (1,553).

We wrote last month that Stapleton’s campaign was sweating it out on the signature front, and these numbers prove that out. Stapleton’s campaign submitted just 19,214 total signatures on February 23 (after telling the media that they had collected 21,000) — two days after Democrat Michael Johnston became the first statewide candidate to turn in petitions. Johnston found out that he had qualified for the ballot on March 16, but it took three more weeks for Stapleton’s signatures to be approved.

As we explained a few weeks ago, Stapleton’s close call with petition signatures despite a massive advantage in financial resources does not speak well for his campaign operation.