This week officially kicks off campaign season. Tuesday was the first day candidates could begin collecting signatures to get on the primary ballot. Still some of the leading candidates can't start yet.
In order to get on the ballot, candidates have to prove voters want them there. In the case of Democrats and Republicans running for governor, that means getting signatures from no less than 5,000 and no more than 10,000 members of his party.
Two candidates running for the GOP nomination are welcome to get started: Sen. Kirk Dillard and Treasurer Dan Rutherford. That's because they've declared
who'll run as their lieutenant governor.
But the rest of the field has to wait to pass signatures until they do the same.
"According to what the statute, it says, and this is the way we are viewing it at this time, it says that: 'for the office of governor and lieutenant governor a joint petition, including one candidates for each of those offices, must be filed,'director of the state board of elections Rupert Borgsmiller says. "So we would assume, or we would anticipate, that the petition for governor/lieutenant governor would include both names - one for governor and one for lieutenant governor."
There's plenty of time - petitions don't have to be turned in until Dec. 2. It's candidates trying to run as independents or third parties who need the extra time; they need to collect five times as many signatures -- 25,000 -- to make it onto the ballot.
