I was discussing the 8th CD petitions situation with fellow Democrats yesterday, and was 100% expecting this reaction by the Shuttleworth campaign (alleging “pathetic, smoke-filled backroom, Tammany Hall corruption” in the local Democratic Party). The question is whether there’s any truth to Shuttleworth’s allegations. So far, I haven’t heard anything that would lead me to believe that there is, but I definitely think we need to find out what happened here exactly. For its part, the Moran campaign issued the following statement:
The Moran campaign submitted their petitions well ahead of the deadline to avoid any last minute problems. It’s a deep concern that petitions appear to have been misplaced by the Fairfax County Registrar’s Office. We urge local officials to get to the bottom of the situation to find out what really happened, to ensure the Democratic process is protected.
For our campaign, nothing has changed. We were fully preparing for a primary, and the coming attacks from the conservative, Texas oil money fueled Super PAC that has stated their intent to try defeat the congressman, who has been a champion of the environment throughout his time in Congress.
The bottom line is this: we need a full explanation, ASAP, from the 8th CD Democratic committee, the Fairfax Registrar, and anyone else who was involved in this FUBAR situation. Right now, this situation is making Democrats look bad, and that will only help Republicans in the end. Not cool.
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