The Bob Good campaign for Virginia’s 5th Congressional district is swatting away what the campaign insiders are calling a last-second Hail Mary attempt by the Denver Riggleman campaign.
Late Friday, WSET uncritically published a press release put out by The Riggleman campaign claiming that Bob Good will not be on the ballot in November if he wins the convention tomorrow, June 13th, 2020.
Bob Good sent out an email claiming to debunk this as you can see below:
A question has arisen from the Riggleman Campaign regarding the submission of a form to the Virginia Department of Elections regarding my candidacy. I am pleased to alleviate any concerns and confirm that the form has been submitted and I will be on the November ballot with my win tomorrow.
I look forward to seeing you tomorrow at the Convention at Tree of Life Church. Our committed delegates are enthusiastic, and are ready to turn out and vote to deliver a great victory for our true conservative campaign.
If there are any last-minute questions we can answer regarding the Convention, please email us at info@BobGoodforCongress.com or call…
Thank you and see you tomorrow!
The Republican Party of Virginia released a statement further clarifying the situation as can be seen in the tweet below where they have requested a blanket extension for any candidate to get on the ballot for reasons given below:
Update: the Republican Party of Virginia has filed asking for a blanket extension for all candidates to file https://t.co/vp3717Es5j pic.twitter.com/UZalVH4WWN
— Brandon Jarvis (@Jaaavis) June 12, 2020
It looks as though a news report originally put out prompted by the Riggleman campaign did not address the specifics of the situation, nor did they mention that multiple candidates may have had this issue of not getting paperwork filed in time due to delays of the original Virginia primaries by Governor Northam as a result of COVID-19. It appears as though the Republican Party of Virginia is confident that this issue will be taken care of, although it is unclear exactly what did or didn’t happen with Good’s situation.
The original news report by WSET did not address the specifics of the issue and appeared to only be released as a result of the Riggleman campaign’s bidding. The original story read:
CAMPBELL Co, Va. (WSET) — Former Campbell County Supervisor Bob Good is challenging incumbent Denver Riggleman for his seat on Congress.
However, according to the Riggleman Campaign, Good’s campaign did not submit his “certificate of candidate qualification”.
They say the deadline was Tuesday.
“It recently came to light that Bob Good did not turn in his Statement of Candidate Qualification Form as required for any candidate to be on the November ballot. Congressman Denver Riggleman did. Bob Good missed the Tuesday, June 9 deadline. This is amateur hour at its finest and shows Bob Good isn’t qualified for Congress,” Riggleman’s Campaign spokesman Joe Chelak said.
According to the Riggleman campaign, even if Good wins Saturday, June 13’s convention his name cannot appear on the November ballot.
“By not filing a simple form, Bob Good has put the district’s conservative representation at risk and showed his campaign to be incompetent,” Chelak said.
ABC13 has reached out several times to the Good Campaign, the State Board of Elections and the 5th District Republican Committee Chairman for a comment — So far, we have not heard back.
The 5th District Republican Committee Chairman, Melvin Adams, told ABC13 just over 3,500 delegates are expected to vote in Saturday’s convention.
He said voting will start at 8:30 Saturday morning. Delegates can drive up to Tree of Life Ministries, just outside Lynchburg, and cast their vote.
It appears that while Denver’s original claims, bolstered by the aforementioned WSET story may have some merit, they have twisted the reality of it to try and convince people to vote for Riggleman instead of Bob Good in tomorrow’s convention for fear that Good won’t be on the ballot, and that’s just not something they can prove is going to be the case before tomorrow’s election. The Good campaign claims to have signed up the most delegates for tomorrow’s primary which puts Denver Riggleman in a tough spot and this could just be a Hail Mary attempt to hang onto his seat.
UPDATE: Bob Good posted this to his page just after 7PM ET:
*** Press Release ***
The 5th District Convention will be held tomorrow at Tree of Life Church in Lynchburg beginning at 8:30 am. Certified Convention delegates exceed 3500 voters from 23 localities which make up the 5th Congressional District. “My campaign is in a commanding lead and I expect a resounding win tomorrow. In fact, our turnout expectations have increased to more than 70% of our committed delegates” said Good.
The Good campaign was notified this evening that the Republican Party of Virginia has issued additional recommendations in light of Covid-19 to address aspects of candidate certification to the Virginia Department of Elections. This communication from RPV Counsel can be found here (https://www.bobgoodforcongress.com/…/2020_06_12_RPV_Communi…).
The convention will be conducted as a modified drive-thru process that has been approved by the Republican Party of Virginia. Voting ends at 7pm. Election results will be announced by the 5th District Committee.
UPDATE: 9:11 PM ET: The Chairman of the 5th District Committee has issued an official statement further clarifying the situation explaining that it is very unlikely that Bob Good will have any issue getting on the ballot if he is to win the convention:
STATEMENT ON QUESTION OF BOB GOOD’S CANDIDACY
Friday, June 12, 2020
Today the Riggleman campaign began to circulate news that Bob Good could not be on the November Ballot if he won the Convention contest tomorrow. They declared he had failed to file FORM 501 – Certificate of Candidate Qualifications with the State Election Board. That form is required of all candidates running for public office in VA, verifying that the candidate meets the basic code of Virginia for elected office. It was due on June 9, 2020, the original Primary Day.
Because of the COVID-19 and the governor’s restrictions, Primary Day was moved to June 23rd. Several campaigns, including the Good Campaign thought the date was changed in correlation with the Primary Date and did not file on June 9th. The date was not changed.
The big question is, does that disqualify Mr. Good from being on the November ballot if he is elected tomorrow?
· The Good campaign contacted the State Election Board and were told that they should submit the form today and that there should be no problem for their campaign. The form was filed.
· Because of the potential impact on our Convention tomorrow, I called John OBannon, a member of the State Board of Elections. He said that it was not uncommon for candidates to be late in filing that particular form and that the State Election Board staff had authority to give a 1-week grace period for late filing. He also confirmed that there were a number of candidates in that situation this year and that if forms were already filed, he expected precedent to be followed and the delayed submission accepted. He then mentioned that there is a second form which must be filed at a later date which has NO grace period. (Perhaps you know candidates who have missed this second deadline and had to do a write-in campaign.)
· Chris Marston, RPV General Counsel, sent the following message to all the District Chairs today:
Dear District Chairs,
Attached please find a letter I sent to the State Board of Elections.
The law allows and the Board has customarily provided for an extension of the deadline to file statements of qualification. This letter requests that they do so again.
A number of local Boards have already asked the State Board to extend the deadline. Courts in Richmond and Roanoke both extended the deadline for City Council candidates in those jurisdictions.
Some of our incumbents and challengers get caught up in this every year and we have routinely sought to help them.
Thanks,
Chris
Based on the above information, I believe that the issue WILL BE RESOLVED as a matter of routine process and so I WILL NOT ATTEMPT to remove any candidate from tomorrow’s ballot.
You will get to vote for your choice of Congressional Candidates tomorrow. It is your voice that matters, and you will have it.
PS – I noted that one of the campaigns is encouraging all of its delegates to come at 10AM.
I am encouraging you all to come during the suggested times for your county Rules 14-18. If a bunch of you choose to come at 10AM as requested, you will have a very long wait.
Melvin Adams
Chairman
5th Congressional District Republican Committee
