Below is from my FNC colleague
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Urgent: McCotter to run as a write-in after failing to make GOP primary ballot
Per Pergram-Capitol Hill
Blog from Rep. Thad McCotter (R-MI)
You Clean Up Your Own Mess”
Why I Will Run a Write-In Campaign
“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans,” John Lennon mused. How right he was.
Last Friday, shortly before a Memorial Day Weekend wreath laying commemorating and honoring our fallen men and women in uniform, I received a call that my 11th Congressional District GOP nominating petitions for the August primary ballot were insufficient and may contain irregularities. Stunned, I immediately asked my legal team to obtain copies of the petitions to confirm this information and they quickly did.
Therefore, today, I am sending a letter to the Secretary of State’s office agreeing with their finding that my petitions are insufficient to place my name on the August primary ballot; asking that they be presented as insufficient to the State Board of Canvassers for rejection; and requesting the Secretary of State’s Office to refer any irregularities to the State Attorney General for a thorough investigation.
While I will not speculate on how this surreal outcome has happened pending the appropriate state review, I will say that, regardless of how the insufficiencies and possible irregularities occurred, as for the failure to file sufficient petition signatures, the buck stops here with me.
In honoring my vow to put my official responsibilities before politics, I delegated the same team that gathered signatures for me during the past decade to do so again and I had no reason to doubt the competence or credibility of our petition gathers’ assessment. Then, as is customary in my campaigns, the petitions’ 2000 signatures were submitted to the Secretary of State’s office at the end of the legal filing period.
Now I feel like George Bailey after Uncle Billy admitted he lost the money. Like George Bailey, knowing my misplaced trust has negatively impacted so many people is heartrending. Unlike George Bailey, I am not tempted to jump off a bridge. Instead, I remember my late father’s rule: “You clean up your own mess.”
Having promised people I would seek another term in the United States Congress and, thereby, give them the chance to vote for, or against me, the only way to clean up my mess is to run a write-in campaign for the Republican nomination for Michigan’s 11th Congressional District.
This I’m doing.
I may not have a guardian angel Clarence to help me but I have something better— the opportunity in our free society to make my appeal to the sovereign citizens of our district for their support as the best candidate to help restructure government for the 21st century; grow our economy; defend our security; and, crucially, elect Mitt Romney our next President.
Yes, a write-in campaign is a difficult hill to climb but, as I am responsible for the hill, I will climb it to the utmost of my ability; and I am heartened to have the critical, early support of upstanding Republicans like my friend, David Trott, and so many others who make this write-in campaign possible.
Yet, regardless of the August outcome, I will retain my faith in the wisdom of the people; will abide their decision; and, will always believe that, while “nobody told me there’d be days like these,” whatever the future holds for we free Michiganders and all Americans, truly, It’s a Wonderful Life.
Chad Pergram
FOX News
Senior Producer
U.S. House of Representatives
