John Blankley Has Secured the Required Signatures to Enter the Race for the 36th State Senate Seat
John Blankley has been collecting signatures since Tuesday in a bid to secure a spot on the ballot for the state Senate seat left vacant by Alex Kasser’s resignation. He needed 546, a threshold he crossed late yesterday.
Although he has secured enough signatures to enter the race, Greenwich registrar of voters Fred DeCaro cautions that typically between 10% and 30% of signatures cannot be verified as eligible. The petitions must be turned in by Monday at 4pm leaving little room for error. Blankley then is shooting for 700 signatures by the deadline in order to be certain he will have enough eligible signatures to run. Any registered voter in the 36th district may sign his petition in person.
Blankley is an entrepreneur and self-described finance expert who has served on the BET as well as being a candidate for the 36th state Senate seat previously. Democrats have said they have concerns that if Blankley is on the ballot it will only serve to take votes away from their candidate. In an interview on the Lisa Wexler show yesterday, Blankley said he is running to bring his business experience to the state legislature and that his ideas and values line up well with Governor Lamont. You can hear that full interview here:
WEXLER INTERVIEW (note that the interview is interrupted part way through but does resume).
“I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t think I could win,” Blankley said. Blankley said that today voters interested in signing his petition may do so today at 10 Doverton Drive in Greenwich but should call 203-249-7797 first.
The special election between Democrat Alexis Gevanter, Republican Ryan Fazio, and now most likely petition candidate John Blankley will be held on August 17.
