Charlie Baker’s bid to become the Republican nominee for governor hit another snag Thursday night when the chair of the rules committee for last Saturday’s convention said his party did not appear to follow its own rules. Steve Zykofsky, a longtime state committee member and chairman of the rules committee that developed the regulations for the GOP convention, said blank ballots should not have been counted in the final tally of votes that delegates cast to decide which candidates can run for governor. If those blank votes had been excluded, he said, Tea Party challenger Mark R. Fisher apparently would have qualified for the ballot, triggering a primary with Baker. “I support Charlie Baker for governor 100 percent — 110 percent perhaps,” said Zykofsky. “But the fact of the matter is, as rules committee chairman and a member of the state committee, I have to be fair.”
The party’s executive director, Rob Cunningham, disagreed with Zykofsky’s interpretation, saying the rule he invoked “does not speak to the issue at hand.”
Zykofsky’s statement was the latest challenge to the vote that ostensibly solidified Baker as the party’s lone candidate for governor and standard-bearer for the November elections. By scheduling their convention early and putting just one gubernatorial candidate on the ballot, some Republicans were hoping to be well-prepared to make a strong, united push against the Democrats before November.
Now, instead of a primary election battle, they face a battle within the party over whether they will have a primary.
Full Article: – Metro – The Boston Globe.