Marc Holtzman is like that guy in the “Terminator” movies, the one who keeps coming back. Shoot him, run him down with a truck, it doesn’t matter. He rises from the ooze to fight on and on and on.
On Wednesday, the Holtzman for Governor campaign got flattened again by the terminator in the secretary of state’s office. For a moment, it seemed dead.
Then, after a brief recess, the campaign was baaaack. Holtzman rose to face the terminator and the rest of his powerful antagonists in the Republican Party once more.
They have to be getting frustrated.
So far, they’ve tried to eliminate Holtzman by nominating U.S. Rep. Bob Beauprez at the Republican State Assembly, by politely asking him to quit the race for the good of the party, by pointedly urging him to quit, and last week by disqualifying hundreds of signatures on the petitions he filed to get on the primary election ballot.
That was expected to be the death blow, but he came back again.
Despite the considerable expense and the potential embarrassment, Holtzman fought back.
On Tuesday, Holtzman’s attorney, Mark Grueskin, filed a legal protest of Secretary of State Gigi Dennis’ ruling on the signatures, demanding an appeal and charging that the secretary of state did not have jurisdiction to rule on the protest. He said Denver District Court should decide the case.
Attorneys for Beauprez and several voters countered, saying the secretary of state did have jurisdiction to hear the appeal. For good measure, they filed protests of their own, contending that Dennis didn’t disqualify enough of the signatures on Holtzman’s petitions.
After considerable posturing and fulminating by a parade of high-dollar lawyers, Deputy Secretary of State William Hobbs cut to the chase.
The secretary of state’s office does have jurisdiction, he said, if for no other reason than the “substantial precedent” for the office reviewing protests of its rulings.
Further, he denied Holtzman’s protest of the ruling because, he said, Grueskin “elected not to present evidence.”
Then Hobbs threw out the other protests, calling them moot.
Case closed. Game over. Terminated.
Oops, maybe not.
Grueskin protested Hobbs’ decision, saying that he was told the hearing was limited to the jurisdictional issue.
In fact, he said, the secretary of state’s office scheduled only 90 minutes for it, clearly an inadequate amount of time to review line-by-line the thousands of signatures submitted on Holtzman’s petition. And at no point during the hearing did Hobbs ask for evidence, he said.
Hobbs backed down.
“I don’t want to be unfair to Mr. Grueskin or his client,” he said.
Holtzman was back in the game.
And what a delicious game it is.
With the deadline for certifying the candidates for the Aug. 8 primary looming Friday, Grueskin said he will file papers in District Court on Thursday to request a ruling on the jurisdictional question.
Once that issue is resolved, the campaign will produce evidence to support its contention that sufficient numbers of signatures on the petition are valid, he said confidently.
Who knows if Holtzman will prevail. It seems like a long shot.
But clearly the guy has succeeded in raising all kinds of gnarly questions about the process of validating signatures, the potential conflict of interest in a state agency’s being the final arbiter of its own decisions, the ability of a political appointee – Dennis – beholden to the Republican power elite for her job and rumored to be Beauprez’s likely running mate to act independent of their influence.
And just how ruthless Holtzman’s opponents in the party really are.
All along we thought we knew how this was going to end. Now who can be so sure?
Pass the popcorn.
It’s just starting to get good.
Diane Carman’s column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. She can be reached at 303-820-1489 or dcarman@denverpost.com.
