Ogonowski fails to make ballot vs. Kerry

Massachusetts Republican Senate candidate Jim Ogonowski has failed to qualify for the ballot, likely costing the GOP one of its few takeover opportunities in 2008.

Ogonowski’s campaign said in a statement that it delivered the required 10,000 signatures to the Massachusetts Secretary of State, but that several town clerks “had erred and had not properly signed the nomination papers.”

In the end, the campaign was just 30 signatures short.

{mosads}“These papers were corrected by the clerks but were unable to be returned to the Secretary of State’s office by 5 p.m.,” spokeswoman Alicia Preston said. “The removal of those certified signatures from our totals thereby dropped us below the threshold needed to qualify for the ballot.”

The news didn’t come as a surprise, as reports in recent days have suggested that the campaign would come up short. But Ogonowski’s campaign had insisted that he would be on the ballot.

Preston said the campaign is reserving its options at this time. The candidates could appeal the signatures in the courts or wage a write-in campaign.

Even being on the ballot would leave Ogonowski a steep uphill battle against Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) in a dark blue state.

Ogonowski, a retired Air Force pilot whose brother died in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, entered the race after a strong special congressional election showing in 2007.

Former congressional candidate and security expert Jeff Beatty is the lone Republican to make the ballot against Kerry, but Ogonowski was the pick of the national GOP.