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George Santos’ announcement during the State of the Union that he plans to run for Congress again was greeted with widespread mockery and derision, but in the off chance he actually intends to go through with it, there’s still a big question: Can he even make the ballot?
New York is a notoriously difficult state for securing ballot access. For starters, Santos is already running behind: The period to collect signatures from voters began a week before he shared his big news. But even if Santos can make up for that lost time, he’d still need to submit 1,250 signatures from registered Republicans in New York’s 1st District by April 4. And in practice, he’d need to gather far more, since many won’t pass muster for one reason or another.
Yet how will he pay signature collectors? As of Dec. 31, Santos had just $27,000 in his campaign account—and almost 30 times as much debt, not to mention his considerable and mounting legal bills. And what sort of firm would even want to work with him? Any company that would do business with an expelled, indicted former member of Congress who cost his party a House seat and is now running against a fellow GOP incumbent would likely never get hired by Republicans again.
Oh yeah, that’s another thing: Santos isn’t running in his old district, the 3rd. The paperwork he filed with the FEC says he plans to head east to the 1st District to take on Rep. Nick LaLota, who reacted with laughter on the House floor during President Joe Biden’s address to the nation.
“At first I thought it was a joke,” the congressman told the New York Times on Thursday night. “I mean, I still think it’s half a joke. You never know with Santos what’s real and what’s not.” But if Santos does actually submit signatures, you can bet LaLota—and his lawyers—will treat them with deadly seriousness.
Challenges to signatures are commonplace in New York, and candidates are regularly thrown off the ballot when their petitions fail to hold up under scrutiny. Well, if there’s one thing Santos is familiar with, it’s failing to hold up under scrutiny.
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