Dee Beaubien

David McSweeney

Daily Herald reporter Mike Rioplee has posted a story about the status of the election challenge filed by State Rep. candidate Dave McSweeney against Independent candidate Dee Beaubien, State Rep. Mark Beaubien’s widow.

He says the State Board of Elections Hearing Officer is recommending that Beaubien be allowed on the ballot.

McSweeney attorney “John Fogarty, said the law expressly prohibits, for example, someone signing Republican primary petitions then running as a Democrat in the general election. He argued that rule should apply to independents, too,” the article says.

He is appealing to the State Board of Elections.

The State Board is evenly split between Republicans and Democrats.

Let’s assume Republicans want to kick Beaubien off to avoid the expensive election battle.

For such a motion to succeed, the GOP members would have to attract at least one Democratic Party member’s vote.

With all the liberal pressure groups backing Beaubien, my guess is that there is no chance of that.

McSweeney could appeal to the court system, of course.