This morning I mentioned Joni Jenkins’ opponent, teabagger Gail Powers, was disqualified. Turns out the folks who signed her candidacy papers aren’t from her district.

Here’s this from the judge’s oder:

The question that is presented to this Court for determination is whether or not it is legally possible to have an elector who does not live in the 44th District sign nomination papers for a candidate to that district for the Kentucky General Assembly?

A review of reported case law reveals that while there may exist a liberal bias in favor interpreting statutes to permit a candidate to stand for election, certain minimum requirements must be met in order for a candidate to be considered qualified to stand for election.

A proper starting place for this Court to commence its review is the provisions found in KRS 118.125. Particularly, subsection (2) provides as follows:

(2)The notification and declaration shall be in the form prescribed by the State Board of Elections. It shall be signed by the candidate and by not less than two (2) registered voters of the same party from the district or jurisdiction from which the candidate seeks nomination.

-SNIP-

In the case before this Court, it was acknowledged that only one of the electors live within the 44th District who signed the nomination papers of candidate Powers.

-SNIP-

[T]he Court finds that on November 16, 2009, an elector, namely Bonnie Powers, was not a resident of the 44th District and as a legal consequence the nomination papers of Sandra Gail Powers were not in compliance with the Kentucky Revised Statutes. This act was more than a mere shortcoming.

-SNIP-

While this Court is sympathetic to candidate Powers argument that the voters of the 44th Legislative District should be permitted to vote for the candidate of their choice, Kentucky law does not permit this Court to ignore the Kentucky Revised Statutes.

Powers asked the court to allow her to amend her papers, but there’s no legal precedent for that… because it’s not legal. So, like any teabagger who doesn’t think the law applies to them, she plans to appeal.

Stay tuned for yet another judge to tell Powers she’s not a bonafide candidate.

Maybe Powers and her teabagger pals shouldn’t have ignorantly called Rep. Jenkins corrupt?

The Republican Party of Kentucky’s legal counsel was given a heads-up several months ago regarding the matter. The RPK had every opportunity to resolve the problem but did nothing. Which makes it tough to take any legal challenge the Party makes in court seriously from here on out.