Update at 3:15pm 3-28-2018:
At a news conference in Hiawatha, Ron Corbett announced he's filed an appeal of the decision by the State Challenge Board that removes his chance of being on the June 5th Republican primary ballot against Governor Kim Reynolds.
Corbett told reporters that he felt "in my gut" it was wrong for three people to keep him off the ballot, especially when the decision to rule his nominating petition invalid due to a lack of signatures wasn't unanimous. Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller voted "no" to ruling his nomination invalid, while Secretary of State Paul Pate and State Auditor Mary Mosiman voted yes.
The request for a judge to review the ruling was filed in Polk County District Court today. Corbett says he'll abide by that decision, but felt it should have another look because he was only 8 votes short of the number needed.
DES MOINES, Iowa -8 improper signatures on a nominating petition are keeping Ron Corbett from the Republican governor's race.
Acting on a challenge to his nominating papers, Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate and State Auditor Mary Mosiman voted to uphold the challenge because Corbett didn't have the 4005 signatures he needed according to state law. Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller voted no.
Corbett's attorney argued that there were names in the petition which were crossed out by the campaign and shouldn't have been...and there were enough of valid signatures to put Corbett over the top.
However, the Secretary of State's office maintained that since the campaign crossed them out, they weren't officially submitted and couldn't be counted after-the-fact.
After the hearing, Ron Corbett said that he hasn't decided yet if he'll challenge the ruling in court. He did attack Governor Reynolds' re-election campaign, saying he doesn't understand "why they don't want a primary" election.
During the nearly five-hour meeting, the three-member panel decided that Dale Bolsinger, who was a candidate on the primary ballot for Iowa House District 58 was a Democrat when he circulated nominating petitions for the race. Bolsinger was the only person to submit nominating papers in the Republican side of that race. There's a two-person Democratic primary taking place.
The panel also rejected challenges to the nominating petitions by Republicans David Young and Kim Reynolds by Democrats. And they decided that Ginny Caligiuri will not be on the GOP primary ballot in the 2nd congressional district against Christopher Peters. The panel ruled that Galigiuri lacked the number of names required.