(Radio Iowa) – A state panel has unanimously decided Eddie Andrews has qualified for the G-O-P Primary for governor. When Iowa’s Secretary of State announced Andrews had survived the challenges to dozens of signatures on his nomination petitions, the candidate’s supporters chanted his name.
The panel found Andrews met the threshold of having at least 100 signatures in each of 19 different counties. “This is a win not for the Eddie Andrews campaign, but it’s a win for Iowa,” Andrews told reporters after the meeting. “It’s a win for Iowa voters.” Andrews says Adam Steen and his campaign staff contacted him three times, threatening to challenge his petition signatures. David Bush, who filed the objections, has donated to Steen’s campaign.
Bush says his challenge was prompted after a text from his own son about the validity of Andrews’ petitions. “I hope we haven’t gotten to the point that supporting a candidate and wanting election integrity are mutually exclusive,” Bush said. After the meeting, Bush congratulated Andrews.
Bush suggested having a five-person race for the G-O-P nomination favored the perceived front-runner. “What I saw from the public documents concerned me and I knew enough about this race to understand that some had a vested interest in seeing as many Republican candidates as possible and would never question anything, which is a problem in and of itself,” Bush said, “so it was going to have to be me.” Andrews responded to Bush’s remarks.
“Heard a comment about low expectations,” Andrews said. “Let me just tell you: we have a standard of high expectations and a standard of excellence.” After the meeting, Bush congratulated Andrews. A spokesperson for the Steen campaign was not immediately available for comment.
